The Life of a Pariah
by DarkSoul7311
Summary: After the murder of her parents, Raizen was thrown out into a world of the heartless and coldblooded. Eleven years later she finds herself to be a well known assassin forced to join a bizarre group of rookie pirates. How on earth can that go wrong? ZoroxOC I might change it to M later, but for now there is gonna be some colorful language.
1. Chapter 1

**The Life of a Pariah**

**AN:** This is my attempt in adding my OC (Raizen) into the world of One Piece.

I'm sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors in my writing. I realize I'm not the best writer in the world but thanks for putting up with this. By the way if any of you guys get the hints of Rai's past you get a golden star of approval.

Tell me what you think, I'll take your suggestions!

And so without much further ado here is the story of One Piece told in Raizens perspective.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but Raizen idea. Everything else goes to the wonderful Oda.

* * *

Chapter 1

The day was so calm, so beautiful. But if course me being, well, me, I just had to find myself some sort of trouble. To be completely honest, I was on a mission to look for some random weak pirate who pissed off the wrong people and now I was hired to "relieve him of his duties" if you will. During my search, I found myself walking down the street, a strange thing for someone with my career choice. This pirate had to have some skill to avoid me of all assassins for this long. I sighed heavily before hearing my stomach begging for some food. It must have been around lunch time if my body wasn't too out of sync with the lack of sleep. I rubbed my eyes and spotting a reflection out of the corner of my eye. In it was a short woman wearing a pair of blue jeans with a red shirt that had a sort of cloud in the middle and a pair of slightly worn out shoes. Her hair wasn't much either, it was pitch black, short, wavy hair reaching down to her neck, with bangs that almost covered my left eye and soft blue color for eyes in the middle of her face. I growled at the image, all I saw was a murderer. A heartless, coldblooded, good for nothing murderer.

I walked past the mirror and the several dozen people wanting to sell me their crap. I looked down every ally for the pirate, but found nothing except for a man with moss for hair standing in one. He was standing there, just staring at the wall, and had I not known what a dead man looks like I would have mistaken him for one. I don't know why I did, but I turned and walked up to him and asked what he was doing. This guy just turned to me with a blank look in his eyes, kinda creepy.

"Where did this village move the stupid port?" I didn't answer right away, I was deciding what sort of crazy man this was.

"It didn't move. Are you drunk?" I finally asked.

"No." Green-Hair replied looking back at the wall.

"So you're just lost?" He growled at that, touchy guy. "I can take you to the port if you want." The guy just turned to me and stared. "Ok then" I mumbled

walking back to where I came from with the guy walking behind me, who I soon realized had to be watched otherwise would wander off in another direction.

"What's your name?" I asked trying to get out of the awkward silence.

"Zoro." The mumbled angrily, probably because I was dragging him along by the wrist. "You?"

"Raizen" I replied looking at him out of the corner of my eye.

"You're the Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro aren't you?" I had onlu noticed the three swords hanging from the leather hoops on his

haramaki a little while earlier. He growled at me. Rude. "Well Pirate Hunter, you have a terrible sense of direction." Again he growled.  
After the lovely stole through town we finally got to the port, where I released the Swordsman's wrist.

"It's been fun," I told him as I walked into town, again, to keep looking for the stupid pirate. I just wanted to kill him and leave, Sousuke would be worried if I didn't return in time, and HE would not- no, I didn't want to think about that, not right now anyways. I didn't walk far before a smiling teenager wearing red vest and a Straw Hat appeared blocking my path.

"You brought Zoro back!" He smiled up at me, like I was his long lost buddy or something.

"Yah..?" _Weird kid_.

"Thanks!"

"Sure?"

"Do you know where we can get meat?!" He asked enthusiastically.

"Uh, well...I'm pretty sure there are a few restaurants in town." I replied going around the guy, but he suddenly wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back.

"What the hell?!" I struggled trying to wiggle out of his strangely strong grip.

"Come with us." He laughed

"Where?! Let me go!"

"Luffy let her go!" Yelled a woman, I don't exactly know what happened but I assume Luffy let me go and I fell backwards, that's when I felt the Swordsman's hands on my waist.

"LUFFY! You can't just kidnap people whenever you want too!" I stood up and looked at the woman who was yelling. She was a redhead and slender but still taller than me, though that's nothing new, the woman yelled at the swordsman as well for wandering and getting lost.

"It's fine," I mumbled under my breath.

"Im Nami, by the way. Sorry, we've got an idiot for a captain," she apologized

"Captain?" I switched to defense and shook the swordsman off. "Your pirates." I didn't ask more, like demanded.

"Yah!" The boy laughed.

"What's your name?" I was reaching for one if the twin blades I kept on my back. He didn't look like my target, but I remained ready to kill if the name fit.

"Monkey D. Luffy! What's your name?" I relaxed my shoulders and brought my arm to cross the other one over my chest.

"Raizen. Nice to meet you," I replied forcing a smile. "We'll it's been...interesting, but I have things to do. And you Roronoa, try not to get lost." I smirked when the man cursed under his breath. _Finally on my way back into town, how hard is this guy gonna be to find?_

_-#-_

After ages of searching the shadows for the stupid guy, I gave up for the day and resolved to search again tomorrow. So I made my way to the port where I had left the stolen boat I used to arrive to the island. To my surprise most of the town's folk were out in the streets, talking about some fight involving two men and one woman fighting pirates. I had a guess who the three were fighting, and I didn't like it.

Weaving through the crowd of terrified villagers going the opposite direction was difficult to say the least, but well worth it. There, in the middle of a fight, was Straw Hat fighting a bunch of pirates, and to my surprise I saw his arm stretch as he punch the man that resembled my target. "Devil Fruit User?!" It was quite rare to find them outside the Grand Line.

I was distracted from the fight by the stupid guys'- the targets'- crew was going around trying to kill the civilians. Yah, I know I'm a killer myself but I don't like seeing innocent people get hurt. It's one of those pet peeves of mine, so naturally I gave the idea to intervene no thought whatsoever. In a fraction of a second I had managed to unsheathe my twin swords and knock the pirate captain to the ground causing the goons to freeze in place and look at me instead.

"What the? Raizen? Woaah!" I heard Luffy's voice behind me.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I heard a low growl presumably coming from Roronoa.

"Where'd you come from?" Nami demanded

"Who are you?! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I AM THE FEARED PIRATE -"

"3 Faced Mazgo?" I cut him off before he finished with that annoying voice of his.

"So you have heard of me, good. What do you want? To join my crew?" His snarl made him look even more pitiful than he already was.

"There are some very powerful people angry with you, for that disappearing act." I smirked holding one of my swords to his neck.

"What?!" He squirmed under the sword trying to avoid the point.

"Let go of our Captain you bitch!" Some goons yelled, proceeded by the sound of gun fire.  
I turned to the sound just in time to see Luffy jump in front of the bullets, not giving me time to react, they hit him and like rubber bounced back and hitting the enemy.

"What- what are you?" I asked in awe, never had I seen or heard of devil fruit that could to that.

"I'm a rubber man!" He laughed

"PUT THE SWORD DOWN!" I redirected my attention to Mazgo, who now held two guns pointed at me.

"You really don't want to do that." I glared at him as whilst he laughed.

"You're as good as dead girly." Not threatening at all. I walked toward him and held both swords tightly. I knew exactly what was coming.

"Raizen get out if the-"

**BANG BANG BANG**

Nami scream behind me, and I guess she had good reason too; the pirate had shot three rounds that would have killed me if I had not dogged them so quickly except for one that grazed my left cheek. I slightly stumbled back and cracked a smile, raising my hand, a shadow followed and wrapped around his arms and chest.

"Cute, my turn." I said impaling him though the heart with one if my swords. Mission complete, 300,000 Beli bounty 3 Faced Mazgo killed.  
I let out a sigh, took out a cloth and wiped the blood off my sword before placing it back in its sheath, next to my bundle of arrows and bow.

"What did you-" Ignoring the 3 pirates behind me, I inspected him until I found my prize hanging around his neck. Then proceeded to drag my dead victim to his crew, and walk back to my pathetic excuse for a boat. They scrambled to grab him and ran off to God knows where.

"You- were, then you-and he-" Nami stuttered

"Yes, he shot at me and I killed him. Thank you for the brief summary." I placed the artifact into my bag.

"How did you do that? Why did you kill him?" She asked again, obviously not trusting me. I really don't blame her though.  
"I was hired to retrieve some object he had stolen and kill him. As for why I am standing, I happen to be a Devil fruit user as well." Luffy's eyes lit up and suddenly grabbed my arm.

"Really?! Which one do you eat!?" I thought for a bit.

"Kage-Kage no Mi. I control shadows, bend them to my will." I lifted his off the ground so it faced him, still imitating his every action.

"Sugeeee!" The boy yelled with sparkling eyes

"What do you mean hired?" Roronoa asked starring at bag in the dingy.

"I mean some guy paid me to kill him," I pointed over to where he bloody stain remained in the ground, damn how hard was it to understand that simple concept!

"You kill for hire?"

"Yah, that's usually what an assassin does." Jesus Christ!

"YOUR AN ASSASSIN?!" The three yelled.

"Good God, YES!" I yelled back very annoyed.

"I've never met an assassin before! What do you do?" Straw Hat asked his eyes sparkling. At this I hit my forehead with my palm and let out a loud sigh that sounded more like something dying.

"How are you an assassin?" Roronoa asked his hand already on the hilt of one of his katana.

"What do you mean how? I just am." I looked at him staring back, I have seen quite a few "hot shots" so one more did not intimidate me.

"Ne, Raizens your name right?" Luffy asked

"Yah."

"Join my crew!" He smiled brightly.

"You know nothing about me, besides my killing people." _What is wrong with this boy?_

"But you only kill the bad guys right?"

"Well, I guess you can put it that way, but-"

"THEN JOIN MY CREW!" Luffy insisted, i shook my head.

"Look, I don't have time to play pirate with you and your-"  
I had no chance to finish, there was a sudden gun shot and a bullet zoomed past my right shoulder.

"Shit! This is your fault!" I yelled at Luffy, who just stared back giving me a confused look "I should be out at sea by now! Dammit!" I faced the 3 Faced Pirates and grabbed the small rod that was strapped to my lower back under the shirt.

"Hey, I can help!" Luffy smiled standing next to her.

"If you get in my way Straw Hat, so help me I will murder you." I growled before extending rod to a full sized pole, and touched the end of it to the ground. A shadow quickly crawled the rod and began to take shape. In a few seconds the blob took the form of a scythe. My absolute favorite weapon, I spun it with ease and lifted it right side up.

"You bitch you killed our captain!" One of the goons yelled, aiming his gun.

"You will pay!" yelled another.

"If you leave now, I won't hurt you alright?" They didn't piss me off, In fact they bored me. I knew the outcome of this 'battle' from the get-go.

"We'll Kill You!" The other pirates yelled. I closed my eyes to take a deep breath, as the men kept firing. Luffy was already ahead of me and began taking them down. He was quite strong for a scrawny little brat.

"Oi! Luffy! Get down!" I opening my eyes. Knowing all to well what I was doing, my eyes had turned to a bright golden color. I could feel it, the tingling pain coursing through my body, it was my 'special' blood taking control. I never liked the sensation, but I can't hold it behind blue eyes forever. I quickly made my way over to Luffy who did as told just in time for him to avoid the slash of the weapon. I moved swiftly through the crowd of idiots and took out several at a time, making me slightly smile at the sight of them.

I guess at one point I forgot this wasn't a training exercise and dropped my guard. Before I could react, I heard metal hit metal. When I looked behind me to my surprise I saw Roronoa holding three swords, one in each hand and the other in his mouth. _What an interesting guy_. He glared at me from behind that black bandana of his.

"What are you doing assassin, this is your mess!" He spoke quite clearly despite the sword in his mouth. I frowned.

"Hey I had this under control! But **YOUR** captain just **HAD** to get involved!" I yelled back, such a troublesome guy. I gripped my scythe tightly and swung it, hitting the other four goons behind him.

"Pay attention." I smirked when he frowned at me.

"Who the hell are you?!" The angry pirates questioned, and thank goodness they said something. I had almost forgotten they were there. Such a bother, I raised my hand.

"Shadows flame" A large group of shadows attacked them, taking the form of fire. Despite being only shadows, I made the black 'fire' copy the main attribute of the element, and watched as the pirates ran screaming about the pain of being burned. Of course there were some weaklings that refused to go down without some sort if satisfaction and in a desperate attempt, ran towards Nami.

"You pathetic pieces of shit!" I turned to them and luckily beat them to her. "I am your opponent!" With one simple movement of the weapon they were all down, either dead or passes out, I didn't know but surely didn't care. I looked back at Nami, the poor girl had fallen seated onto the sand.

"You ok?" The tingling sensation went away, giving me the comfort of knowing my eyes had gone back to their blue color, my scythe disappeared turning back into a small rod, which I placed on my back again. "Hey." I called her out, waving my hand in front of her face "Did you pass out?"

"That was awesome!" Luffy yelled, "You have to join my crew!"

"Just say yes, he won't stop bothering you till you do." Roronoa sighed placing his katana back in his sheath and tying the bandana to his left arm. They were all so strange, even Nami, who seemed to be a little less than the Swordsman and Captain.

"He's right." Nami said finally standing up again. "Just get it over with". She smiled at me. I knew what this would mean, not only for me but for them. But I guess a few weeks wouldn't hurt...right?

"Fine,"

"YES!"

"BUT! I'll only travel with you for a short period of time. Agreed?"

"Yes!" Luffy screamed, literally wrapping his arms around me several times. I smiled slightly, a true one this time.

-#-

After the incident with the pirates I escorted Luffy to a restaurant that had Nami's qualifications of not being dreadfully expensive. It was the loudest lunch I had ever been a part off. The guy could really eat, a lot, if I didn't know any better, I would say he were a bottomless pit.

"Does he always eat this much?" I asked Roronoa who sat across from me drinking some booze.

"I don't think he would ever stop eating if that were an option" He laughed whole heartedly. I had found out a few things about him and Nami, nothing all too big, but enough to keep me satisfied.

"So where are you headed?" I asked chugging down another pint of Rum.

"The Grand Line!" I choked and began to cough, assisted by Nami gently patting my back. "I'm going to be the King of the Pirates!" He laughed at me. He was crazy!  
"King of the-" I repeated "Do you know what you're getting yourselves into? The Grand Line is no laughing matter, that place is very dangerous! If you're planning to go in a boat, you won't survive."  
"We're gonna find a big ship! And sail in that!" Luffy smiled, using his hands filled with meat to show just how big it was to be, before getting distracted with food again. Lunch didn't last too much longer, but I spent the rest of the time drinking tea and tugged my hair.

"What have I gotten myself into."

-#-

After lunch, Luffy decided to head out to sea. And seeing as my boat became even more screwed up with the goon fight earlier, I jumped into the boat with Luffy and Roronoa while Nami sat in the other. It was a calming experience besides Luffy's continuous whining about his mighty need for meat, and Roronoa's addiction to sake. It was actually entertaining.

Not long after the sun went down two of them were out cold, leaving me with the option of being the look out. Roronoa disagreed and wanted to take over my shift, so I yelled at him and won. Even If I wanted to sleep I couldn't, my insomnia would keep me awake with the memory of my past. Usually I wouldn't sleep for a week or so before finally passing out on some floor.

I positioned myself so I could almost touch the water, but I knew better so instead I played with the boats shadow, making figures and letters from an almost lost language.

"What are you doing?" A hoarse voice asked. It startled me, but when I looked up I saw the brute yawning.

"Being the lookout,"

"We'll you're not doing a very good job."

"Says who? There hasn't been anything to bother waking you three over." I stared at him. Now I found him annoying, and had the urge to hit him with the rod

for my scythe but decided against it.

"What?" He growled.

"Such a barbarian, Roronoa." I scoffed. He growled and ran his hand over his short hair.

"Zoro,"

"Excuse me?"

"Just call me Zoro." He said looking away, "After all we are Nakama now." I had never been called that before. Despite my... Well, I guess in my current situation there is no use for such a word.

"Well then Zoro, go back to sleep. I'll keep watch." He nodded and in a few minutes began to snore. I looked up at the starry sky. It really had been a long time since I was last able to do this. I guess I will enjoy it while I can, before my return. I gently traced my hand over the mark on the left side of my stomach, and begun to hum a tune my late sister had taught me.

* * *

**AN:** That's finally over! HUZZAH!

Well then, this looked allot longer in Word..

Now to write the rest of this. (yay)

It's been in my head for the longest time and I've been trying to write it down forever.

Tell me what you guys think! Hopefully this won't take all too long, I'll try to upload every week or two…or so…

Anyways see you guys in the next chapter,

See Yah.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** HI GUYS! I know I'm late….great start to a story that's probably gonna go on for a while, hu?

At any rate I'm rewatching One Piece for the purpose of making a bit more canon. So apart from an extra arc or two it should stay the same. Besides by extra OCs.

So here we go.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything besides my OCs, all goes to Oda!

* * *

Chapter 2

"We can't make it to the Grand Line like this." Nami finally said. She had been dancing around this idea for a while, hinting the fact we were going to die once we reached that "cursed sea". There were absolutely no supplies, besides an already half eaten barrel of apples, if you can even call what remained supplies. We probably had enough for a few hours, before the Captain shoved the rest of it into his mouth.

"Yah, you're right. We need a lot of meat. I can't just eat fruit the rest of the way." Luffy said eating the core of an apple he had in his mouth._ 19._

"We also need more booze."

"That would be nice." I agreed with the swordsman.

"Oh shut up!" the woman replied throwing in our general direction. "I mean we're going to need more than just beer and meat to survive! The Grand Line is a dangerous place! That place is full of well-prepared pirates who, also looking for the One Piece."

"We need more crew members." Luffy added eating another apple. _20._

"Exactly! We don't even have a proper ship."

"She's got a point. There's no way of making it in this shape." I spoke out tracing my bows curve, evening out the random bumps here and there.

"So, we need a cook and a musician! All pirates need to sing!" Zoro laughed at Luffy's…well lets go with simplicity.

_They are going to die._

Nami sighed then turned to stare at me. I gave her a shrug and went back to my weapon.

"Look, there's an island not too far from here with some villages." She said checking her maps. "We might be able to get ourselves a ship and some supplies."

"Finally fresh meat!"

"And Booze!"

"I could go for some beer." I smiled

"You three are a bunch of dumbasses."

-#-

In about an hour we had reached land, and thank God we did, my muscles were beginning to cramp up from the lack of motion. I jumped off the boats in a rush and threw my hands up in the air, causing several cracking noises to come from my joints.

"Finally, dry land" The swordsman said doing the same as I was.

"There has to be a village around here somewhere right?" Luffy asked starring at the cliffs. In the middle of them was a sort of stone ramp that led to the rest of the island.

"Yah, but it doesn't look very big." Nami replied checking her map again.

"If there's a village then there's a restaurant, and if there's a restaurant, then there's meat! Let's go! Let's go! Let's gooooo!" Luffy cheered as he started to make his way to the ramp, I ran after him and managed to wrap one arm around his neck to hold him back.

"Hold on Luffy, you don't even know where this village is. And besides, were not alone."

"What?"

"Were being watched." Roro - Zoro said, with a hand over one of his katana.

"Who? Where? Do they have meat?" Luffy asked wiggling all excited like.

"Will you stop with the meat!" I growled back.

"Watch it!" I let Luffy go just in time for him to avoid the small objects shooting at his feet. I too avoided the bullet-like objects, but in the process hit a brick wall.

"What happened to all those skills, assassin?" I looked at the "wall" and found Zoro with that stupid smirk of his.

"You know what? Shut Up!" When the attack stopped some thirty pirate flags popped out of the bushes on top of the cliffs.

"SO COOL!"

"Is this supposed to scare us?" Nami scoffed.

"Says the one hiding behind the boat." I replied

"Shuddup!" she yelled back, I smiled and gave her a salute.

"I am Usopp! Ruler of the pirates who reign over this island. A living legend! The most revered pirate who ever lived, I am Captain Usopp! " I turned to look up at a teenager wearing brown overalls, a pale blue sash around his waist, and a satchel slung over his shoulder. He had tan skin, curly black hair with a forest green bandana around his head, and the longest nose I had ever seen.

The teenager smiled, apparently proud of his _brilliant _lie. "You must have heard that going against this island would mean death! My eighty thousand super angry men would kill you without question."

_Good Grief, I've herd better lies from men begging for their lives._

"AWEEEESSOOOOOMMEE!" Luffy screamed.

_He actually believed him? You have got to be kidding me._

"You really think we're going to believe that?" Nami – who decided to come out of hiding- said.

"She knows!?" _Captain_ Usopp screamed

"Well I do now."

"AH! How could I have been so stupid! I practically told her I was lying! Stupid stupid stupid!"

"IT WAS A LIE?!" Luffy screamed.

"Fine! Maybe I don't have eighty million men at my command! But I do have many men under my control!"

"I'd say three." At that 3 boys jumped out from the bushes with terrified looks on their faces.

"SHE KNOWS! RUN!" Nami smiled and walked over to where the small objects Luffy had avoided were.

"So you were using a slingshot, hu?"

"That's cool!" Luffy laughed. I shook my head, but couldn't hold back my smile.

"That's enough!" Usopp pulled said slingshot from his bag with one of those small marbles and aimed it at Luffy. "You have one more chance to get off this island, before you find out why they call me 'Proud Usopp' not 'Pushover Usopp'. I looked over at Luffy who held a serious look on his face. "Got that?! I'm no amateur with this! I can beat anyone with a gun!" Rubber Boy placed his hand over his straw hat, blocking his eyes from view.

"Now that you've drawn your pistol, are you willing to use it?" He gave the teenager a smirk "Guns aren't for threats they're for actions." I had heard those words before.

_Poor guy's scared half to death._

"Are you willing to risk your live?" Zoro chuckled at the Captains words, we knew exactly where he was going with this.

"I can assure you, we are real pirates." He said just barely pushing his katana out of its sheath.

"Be sure to choose your next move wisely." I played along placing a hand onto the hilt of one of my twin swords. Usopp starred back at us shaking like a leaf. I really had to hold back from laughing out loud.

After a while of glares and silence, Usopp dropped to the ground and mumbled something about real pirates. As the tension wore off, Luffy cracked smile and the three of us laughed at the guy. Damn, it really had been a long time since I felt this carefree.

"I stole those words." Luffy informed him.

"What?"

"I stole them from Shanks."

"Wait, Shanks?! As in Red Haired Shanks?! You guys really are pirates!"

_Shanks! Of course! That's where they were from._

"Yup, I know your Dad too, his name is Yasopp right?" Usopp beamed at us, but while doing do managed to tumble down the cliff and hit the ground with a loud thump.

_Ouch._

"Yah, that is his name, but how do you know him?"

"Take us to get some food and I'll tell you!" Luffy smiled rubbing his stomach.

"Again with the food." I mumbled. Usopp agreed and walked us into town.

-#-

We sat in a booth with Luffy and I on one side while Zoro and Nami sat on the other, with Usopp at the end. After ordering almost everything on the menu, Luffy went on to tell him how his father was the sharpshooter on Shanks crew.

"He used to talk about you all the time, actually it got annoying at times," Luffy said. _Charming._ "But he was a great pirate"

"Really? Man, I'm really proud of my Dad, he chose a life out at sea, a life full of adventure."

"Then maybe you can help us," Nami said cheerfully. "Do you know where we can get a ship around here?" I drank the remaining bit of beer in my mug before switching to tea.

"Hm, well this village is pretty small, I don't think we can help. Sorry." He smiled.

"What about that mansion over there?" Zoro pointed out the window to the top of the hill as he did so Usopp let out a small squeak.

"Do you know them? They probably have enough money to help us get out ship." I could almost hear the sigh when Nami said money.

"You guys stay away from there!" The teenager snapped. "Ah! I uh, just remembered something I uh, have to do." I refilled my cup of tea and starred as he stood. "Feel free to stay and eat for as long as you like," he said before dashing out of the restaurant.

"What was that all about?" Nami questioned.

"Who knows," Luffy continued to eat nonchalantly.

"Well, while since we're already hear, we can stock up on supplies and find a proper ship at the next island." I said blowing on the steaming cup before taking a sip.

"Right, let's get lots of meat!"

"Honestly." Nami shook her head. "Rai, sometimes I think you're the only one who understands."

I froze, it had been years since anyone had called me **that**. Not since I was about five years old, before they were all taken from me. I felt the warmth of liquid trickling down my hands letting me know I was spilling my tea.

"Rai? Hey Raizen!" Luffy shook me. "Are you gonna eat that?" He pointed at the fish on my plate. I shook my head as he took it. When I looked up I met the Swordsman's glare.

"What." I ordered.

_I really don't need his shit right now._

"Are you really an assassin?"

"Not this again. When are you going to let that go?" I sighed putting the cup down, realizing just how much of a mess I had made. I grabbed a napkin to dried it off.

"You don't look like any of the ones I've caught." He replied drinking more of his beer.

"Ignore him, So Rai, where are you from?" Nami smiled at me.

"….Around." I really didn't want to get into the details.

"Where's that?" Luffy asked

"Oh come on, you've got to have some sort of place you call home." Zoro starred.

"Yah, well….." I can't tell them too much, for their own good. "I'm from an island in the Gran-"

"The Usopp Pirates Have Arrived!"

_Thank You!_

"You stupid pirates! What have you done with our captain! Tell us!" yelled one of the three boys that had barged into the restaurant. Luffy patted his stomach and smiled.

"That was some good meat!"

"What meat?" said the kid with the purple hair.

"They're cannibals!" yelled the one with yellow hair. I looked over at Zoro who gave me a grin. I cracked a smile and held back a laugh.

"What did you do?!" The kid with green hair was practically in tears. Zoro leaned on the table and wore the most evil grin he could muster without laughing, and with the perfect amount of shadow to his face said:

"If you're looking for your Captain, we ate him." The kids screamed and turned to Nami.

"CANNIBAL!" I broke out in laughter along with the other two.

"WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?!" Nami yelled at three boys who had tears in their eyes. "YOU HAD TO GO AND DO SOMETHING STUPID DIDN'T YOU! AGH!" she screamed looking at Zoro. I gave him a high five for his job well done and continued to laugh.

-#-

We had to explain out joke to the three boys a few times before they could retain the truth. But after they took us to the mansion on top of the hill where they said Usopp was.

"Why would he be here?" asked Luffy.

"To lie." Carrot- a boy with purple hair wearing an orange headband with a jolly roger on it- calmly stated.

"What? Why would he come do such a horrible thing?" Nami questioned.

"It's not bad, he's a great guy, hu?" replied Pepper, he had dark green hair that actually matched his name.

"Yah! Captain's awesome!" Onion – a blonde headed kid who, again, the hair matched the name- cheered.

"How's a liar supposed to be awesome?" The boys looked up at the swordsman and told us how he went to the mansion to tell lies to a girl by the name of Kaya, who was quite wealthy. But with her parents death a year ago fell into depression and became ill. Despite her wealth there was nothing doctors could do to heal her. So, since then Usopp has gone to visit her and tell wild made up stories that always cheer her up.

"Captain's the best at letting lies."

"That's of nice thing to do." Luffy agreed.

"Yah!"

"The best part of Captain is his mischievous side, he's always getting into trouble" Carrot smiled.

"I like how he's so silly." Pepper added.

"And I like his crazy made up stories." I smiled at the boys.

_These three really look up to the guy. How sweet._

"So by telling those stories, he makes her feel better?" Nami asked.

"Yah, lots better!"

"That's great! Then we are going to ask her for a ship after all!"

"Luffy," I mumbled.

"Usopp's the one that makes her feel better, not us." Zoro grumbled.

"But there's no way the guards will let any of us in." Pepper said pointing over at the suits standing in front of the main entrance.

"Then how- hey, where's Luffy?"

"I'll go ask her!" We turned to the fence to see him grab onto the bars and stretching himself back.

"No! You can't just go barging into people's houses you idiot!" I yelled at him, hearing the three boys screaming behind me.

"Gum Gum,"

"No!" We reached out for him in a futile attempt to try and keep him from flying over the fence.

"Pardon the intrusion"

"Let GO!"

"ROCKET!"

_He let go._

_OH GODS HE LET GO!_

Before I could process the feeling of being shot into the sky by a crazy man with a straw hat, we hit the ground.

"That went well"

"SHUT UP YOU ASS!" I screamed at Luffy.

"Oh dear, are you alright?" I rolled on my back and looked at the window where a pale girl with soft blonde hair wearing a white dress was looking down at us. I gave her a thumbs up and attempted to get up.

"Don't mind them Kaya. They're just a bunch of nobodies who heard of my greatness and want to be a part of my crew."

"No we're not." Luffy retaliated. "We came here to see you." He looked up at Kaya. "I wanted to ask you a favor.

"For me?"

"Yah, I wanted to ask if you can give us a boa-"

"You there!" a voice rang out. "What do you think you're doing?"

A man dressed in a black suit, wearing glasses approached us. He looked weird for some reason, and I didn't seem to like him either, well as much as I can like for someone I met two seconds ago.

"Klahadore,"

_What the hell kind of name is that? Then again, kids named after vegetables._

"Get out." He ordered, pushing his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose with his palm. "This is criminal trespassing."

"Who's that?" Luffy starred at the man as he pushed his glasses up again.

"These people are-"

"Not now Kaya." He interrupted.

_Rude, but who am I to talk._

"You can tell me all about them after they leave. Now get out, all of you, unless you've got business with me."

"Oh, alright. Do you think you can help us get a ship?"

"Of course not."

"Aw." I patted Luffy's back as he dipped his head.

"There, there."

"Usopp!" Klahadore called out to the tree. "You're very well known in the village. I hear you've been on many adventures, impressive for someone your age."

"People who know that much about me usually call me 'Captain' so that's 'Captain Usopp' to you."

"Captain, hu. You know your father also had a reputation."

"Klahadore, please, stop." Kaya spoke out.

"You'll never be anything other than the son of a filthy good for nothing pirate." Luffy looked back up at him. "You're probably up to no good anyways. All I ask is that you and your kind leave Miss. Kaya alone."

"Good for nothing?" Usopp repeated.

"You and she are from completely different universes, and you are very well aware of that. All your after is her wealth isn't it."

"Stop this immediately Klahadore! Apologize at once!" Kaya had gone a shade or two paler.

"There is no need to apologize to this savage, My Lady. I am merely stating the truth. You must hate your father. After all he did leave you and your family because of his lust for treasure."

"STOP!"

_Hey look, I was right. I don't like him._

"Don't you dare insult my father ever again!"

"Usopp." He snarled, jumping off the tree holding onto some sort of wire that retracted back into his bag. Klahadore grinned at him.

"Its times like these when you should lie, why don't you tell me how your fathers not really a pirate. Tell me about how he's really some traveling salesman, or how you two aren't related by blood."

"SHUT UP!" Usopp gave it no thought. He ran straight up to the annoying guy in black and punched him, knocking him to the ground.

"CAPTAIN!"

"Well, that proves it. When put in such a situation he resorts to violence. Typical."

"SHUT UP! My father was a great man! He's a brave warrior of the sea and he chose that life! And you are right I am known to exaggerate, but I will never lie about who my father is! I refuse to be ashamed of my heritage! I AM THE SON OF A PIRATE!" Those words pierced me like a bullet. He was lucky. Maybe he would he shunned or turned down for saying such things, but he wouldn't be hunted to the ends of the earth just for blood in his veins.

"Pirates are brave warriors of the sea? That's a foolish way of looking at it."

_How the hell would he know what a pirate is?_

"You are living proof of the evil of pirates. You only got close to the lady of the house so you could steal her fortune."

"No, I-"

"Your father is a filthy no good pirate! Treachery is in your blood!"

"Why you-" Usopp lunged forward and grabbed Klahadore's collar ready to punch him again.

"STOP IT USOPP! PLEASE! No more violence! I can't take it anymore. He- Klahadore's not a bad guy, he's just doing what he thinks is best for me. And sometimes he can go a bit too far." Kaya was practically dangling out that window by now, but Usopp listened and let Glasses go but would not move.

"Now, Leave."

"Yah, I get it. I don't have to be told twice. This is the last you'll ever see of me." He left without another word.

"Hey, you butler jerk! Our Captains not that kind of guy!"

"Yah stupid you Jerk Face!"

"Jerk Face!"

"JERK FACE!" Luffy screamed repeating Pepper and Onion.

"Shut up" Zoro sighed, hitting him over the head. "There's no reason to get worked up" The butler growled and sent the kids running behind Nami, leaving Zoro and I with the trouble of holding the genius Captain back, despite his kicking and screaming to let him go. Again he pushed his glasses up with his palm. _Weird._

"LET ME GO! IM GOING TO KICK HIS ASS!"

"You are to leave at once!"

* * *

**AN:** That took so much longer than expected.

BUT I am going to start writing these chapters in advance so that there isn't a month that goes by in between each chapter.

Thanks for waiting. Again I am so sorry.

See you guys later.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Hi. Sorry I'm late again. * hides*

**Disclaimer: **One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

* * *

Chapter 3

"Where did Luffy go?"Nami asked sitting on a fence. After the incident at Kaya's mansion we left as told, dragging a very pissed Luffy along with us. He along with Usopp decided to go for a walk to cool off, that was two hours ago.

"Who knows." Zoro replied leaning against one posts for the fence with his three katana next to him.

"Maybe with the Captain." One of the kids offered. I sat on the ground drawing symbols in the dirt with a stick I had found lying around because my boredom has risen to the point where writing in my language seemed like the better option than starring at a tree.

"Captain's probably there." Pepper told us.

"Yah, at the coast." Carrot nodded. "He goes there when he's got something on his mind. You guys wanna go?

"No, I'll pass." The lazy swordsman leaned back even further and yawned. Such and annoying prick.

"Luffy'll come back eventually, and besides there's no real rush." I told the two boys. Silence ensued for a moment as a slight breeze brought the scent of cinnamon, it had been years since I last ate that cinnamon bread I used to love. Maybe I would make one when I got back to that, my little brother would like anything with sugar in it.

"Aren't you guys missing a member?" Nami asked.

"Oh yah, Onion."

"He randomly disappears, he'll show up soon."

"Yah, screaming about something or another." And as if on cue the blonde headed boy came running down the dirt road as described.

"See?"

"THERE'S THIS REALLY WEIRD GUY WALKING BACKWARDS!" The boy was in tears.

"You're lying." The other two retaliated.

"I AM NO! Just look!" Onion pointed over to where he had come running from, we looked to see a man holding his dark purple hat. He wore the same color jacket, with olive color pants and white socks. He was how the boy had said, walking backwards as he got closer and closer to us.

"Hey, which one of you called me weird?" He turned, wearing red sunglasses that resembled hearts. "I am not weird."

"You could have fooled me." I spoke.

"That's absurd." He replied shuffling his feet. "I'm just a hypnotist passing through."

"A Hypnotist?" Onion did not seem so scared anymore.

"That's so cool! Can you demonstrate something?" Pepper asked, his eyes sparking at the guy.

"Yah, please show us something!" he shuffled his feet again.

"No, why should I show my skills to people I have never met?" He took out a ring on a string and put it in front of the three boys. "Now listen, just stare at this ring."

"Yet he still does it." Zoro commented. The Hypnotist began to swing the ring back and forth.

"Now when I say 'One, Two, Jango' you will fall asleep got it? Alright. One, Two, Jango" As soon as he had said so he and the kids dropped to the ground snoring.

"What the hell was that supposed to be?!" The swordsman growled.

Nami proceeded to hit them over head while screaming to wake them up.

"You bunch of idiots!" The woman finished her tantrum by sitting back on the fence with a pout on her face. I rolled my eyes and read the words I have subconsciously scribbled onto the ground.

'_Odidnev_'

Sold. I scribbled it away until the stick broke in my hand.

Fuck.

-#-

The hypnotist eventually got up and left, leaving us the job of waking three sleeping children. They woke up in a daze, not a big surprise considering they had hit the ground pretty hard. We lounged around another hour or so for Usopp and Luffy to show, all in vain. My mind had begun to wander to my childhood a few times and every time I pulled it back to stare at the tree. But there's only so much detail I could inspect before I wanted to gauge out my eyes and decided it would be better to not fight it anymore. I thought about those times way back when my cousin and brothers had defied my Fathers rule to keep my sisters and me from fighting. Everyday instead of taking a stroll through that stupid garden I would run to the stalls in that overly puffy dress my Mother would make me wear and learn of the weapons the soldiers would use, anything from guns, to sickles. After they agreed my progress was sufficient I would go one on one with them and sometimes if I had angered them enough they would gang up on me, I would return to Mother in a filthy and torn (sometimes bloody) dress to be scolded and she would threaten to tell Father of my disobedience. She never did. Those were the days I lived for but now seem to have never existed.

"Captain!" The kids yelled, startled I looked down the road. Usopp was running towards us.

"Why isn't Luffy with him?" The kids cheering drowned out Zoro's question but that did not make it irrelevant, where was he?

"Hey, where's Luffy? Wasn't he at the coast with you?" Nami went unanswered. Usopp ran right past us without so much as a glance of acknowledgment.

"Maybe he's still upset about what happened earlier." I stated, though pretty sure that wasn't it.

"Dunno," The Swordsman relied.

"No." Carrot began, "There was something about his expression."

"Yah! Something must have happened!" Pepper held a stern face.

"But what could have happened?" I guess all three of them had a valid point. Besides they knew him for years, we arrived hours ago.

"Alright, then how do we get to the coast?" Zoro asked, the children however were far too excited about the idea that something was wrong.

_What's wrong with these people?_

-#-

"Here we are, this is where the Captain comes to mend his broken heart."

Good Grief.

"It's really nice up here." That it was. The kids had led us to a cliff with a lovely view of the ocean where a lone tree grew.

"But that straw hat guys not here."

"Where else would he be?" I asked no one in particular.

"These rocks are pretty loose." Nami was dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.

"Watch it." I called.

"Nami, be careful." The Swordsman raised his voice a little more than I had. The woman nodded and looked around a bit more.

"Wait, look. Over there." Her finger pointed off the cliff to the rocky ground beneath it.

"Luffy?

"Hey, it's the Strawhat guy!" We hurried down a safer rout to get to the idiot, and what a surprise it was to see him. How on earth had he landed with his butt in the air? The only logical conclusion would be he broke his neck and was dead.

"How did this happen?" Nami exclaimed covering her mouth from shock.

"Looks like he fell."

"He's dead."

"That's why the Captain was so upset." Great, how was I going to get back to the Grand Line now?

"What-" Zoro stared at the "corps"

"Hm?" What now?

"Listen." I did as told and felt the urge to hit my head against one of the rocks.

"This lazy ass." Better words could not have been chosen. Zoro used one of his swords to poke at Luffy, thus waking him from his stupid nap. The kids proceeded to scream when he sat up and took in his surroundings.

"G'morning."

"You're unbelievable." I hissed, all he did was smile that idiotic smile of his and laugh. How can someone be that carefree?

"How did you get down here anyways?"

-#-

"WHAT?! THEY'RE GOING TO DESTROY THE VILLAGE AND KILL KAYA?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

_Glasses is a pirate captain, and the Hypnotist is a crewmate? Well isn't that just fucking perfect._

"Yah, that's what they said." He picked up the hat and placed it back onto his head. "Without a doubt." That's the thing, why would a pirate captain stay on land for three years working as a butler for some sick, though apparently sweet, rich girl? Pirates are a bunch of greedy good for nothing drunks and are a pain to please. Which is why I usually stayed away from them, until now, I'm so short on time. I shook my head to clear the thought away and looked around to see the three kids running away. Ah, I probably should have been paying attention. Oh well.

"Oh no!" Luffy yelled, "We have to hurry! Before all the meat leaves the island with the restaurant guy!" I let out a loud exasperated combination of a sigh and a growl.

"This isn't the time for that." Zoro nudged him with the hilt of his sword, causing Straw Hat to fall over onto his face. Nami proceded to angrily lecture him about priorities, but I would be willing to bet he only heard the word "meat" when mentioned because of the drool accumulating on his chin.

"So, time to leave?" I offered.

"No." The Captain wiped the drool away and stood. "We are going to help." I frowned.

"Seriously? This has nothing to do with you." I blurted out before I had a chance to choose my words properly.

"Maybe not, but this village has no reason to be attacked." The Swordsman explained roughly. I don't get it, why? So what if they die? It's their problem to deal with in their own way. And they can always call the Marines for help, though they probably won't do shit about it. They never do.

I decided it was best to remain silent, one of my specialties. We caught up to the kids who had found Usopp walking back along the path we had seen him run on earlier.

"Hey guys!" He waved back almost too happy considering the news about the pirate attack set for the following morning.

"Hi." Luffy waved.

"Ah! You're still alive?!" Usopp was attempting to hide his hand behind his back, or something of the sorts. Whatever he was doing it was obvious he was hiding something. And as much as I tried to ignore it a familiar smell filled my nose. Where was that blood coming from, it smelled pretty good.

"Yah I guess, I just woke up." He said proudly.

"This guy was sleeping the entire time!" Pepper explained.

"Anyways, Captain we know all about what's happening."

"Yah, about the pirates attacking! We have to hurry up and tell everyone in the village!" Carrot yelled. Usopp stared at the three for a bit.

"Tell the village." He stayed quiet for a bit longer, then began to shake, and eventually let it out in a fit of laughter. "Oh that? It was just a lie! Like all my other ones! That butler really pissed me off so I made up that story to get back at him." He continued to laugh, it was harsh and dry, an obvious lie. He was joined by the kids.

"Oh, I get it."

"You even managed to fool the Straw Hat guy too." They continued to laugh, except the kids walked right past him.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I'm starting to lose all the respect I had for you." Carrot had his back to him.

"Me too,"

"And Me, even though that butler was a bad guy I thought you would go so far as to lie about someone to hurt them like that." Pepper and Onion agreed.

"I'm really disappointed in him."

"Yah."

"Let's go home. It's diner time."

"I hope there's something good." I did not have to see Usopps face to see the hurt he was trying to hide. Being abandoned like that, by the most delicious people you care about, it must- where is that smell coming from! God I'm hungry and the smell didn't make things easier. I sniffed around trying to pinpoint the source.

"Usopp," He turned around and stared at me with a stern look that almost looks like he was angry, almost. "Are you hurt?" he flinched and turned to face us, once again hiding his arm.

"I-Its nothing."

"Uhu," I scoffed. "Let me have a look at it." He took a step back. "I won't bite." I more told myself than Usopp who hesitated at first but held his arm out to me. I pulled down the sleeve he was using to hide and soak up the blood. There was a scratch on his arm with delicious warm liquid slowly oozing out. It took all my will power to keep myself from sinking my teeth into it.

"How'd this happen?" Nami startled me out of my- whatever that was.

"Um."

"The wounds not deep, and should heal soon. I have some basic medical supplies back in the boat." I turned to Luffy releasing Usopp's arm.

"Alright! Rai, go get the stuff!" He paraded off with Usopp and Nami at his heal yelling about something or another. I took a deep breath, the smell still lingering, I should take this opportunity and drink some of that tea I still have.

"How'd you know he was injured?" Zoro asked before I went the opposite direction. 'Oh nothing much, I smelled blood and the sweet smell of it helped me pinpoint the location to him.'

"Lucky guess." I didn't look him in the face, but he could tell I was lying. Once I got back to the boats I took out the supplies. I found and chugged a small bottle of the medicinal tea I had. It really did nothing other than to calm my on high nerves and keep me from hacking up a lung. I didn't have much left, enough for 3 weeks if I didn't drink any for a few days. This may cause a problem. I really hope not, I've got enough to deal with already. I decided to refill the small bottle and put it in my pocket just in case things got ugly. I ran back to the other side of the island to see Nami doing her best to deal with the wound, I handed her the supplies. I was proud to see my craving had died down. That tea is a miracle to my people. I don't know how else we would have kept from eating every other species on this earth without it. Of course I had to, at times, go without it while on jobs, and that was a bitch to deal with. I'm an assassin, in theory that should give me the right to eat my kill, but no, I had to wrap it up and send the perfectly eatable meat off to the person who hired me in the first place.

I shook myself out of my thoughts and realized Usopp had explained how he had already told the villagers but no one believed him. Yet he still wanted to protect them, no matter if they chased him out or shot at him, making me feel like an ass for choosing the most inopportune moment to go on a rant about my blood lust.

"This is _my _village. I love this village. I want to protect everyone!"

"Didn't know you were the kind of guy to leave his friends to fight the enemy." The Swordsman seemed too eager.

"Just so you know, all their treasure is going to be mine." Oh no, they aren't going to-

"Alright, it's decided. We're going to help you." Fuck. I guess I have no choice. They're my ride back home.

"You'll really help me?" Usopp was in tears and desperately trying to rub them off his face. "Why?" Can someone please explain?

"Cause they've got more people" Luffy cracked his knuckles.

"If you're scared you can back out you know, leave it all to us." Zoro gave him a smirk.

"Me scared? It doesn't matter how many there are, its fine with me. Because I am the brave warrior of the sea Captain Usopp!" His legs were shaking, at least he's got courage. "It's fine! I don't need you're sympathy! Just leave! Go home! I'll handle this! Leave!"

"It's not sympathy." My voice rang out before I realized what I had blurted out.

"We're not making fun of you. We are willing to help cause we admire your courage."

"Do you really think we would put our lives at risk for sympathy?" Such strange pirates.

-#-

Since the pirates would be attacking in a few hours we decided to be prepared and guard the slope they would surely come up by seeing as it was the only path that leads to the village.

"Sounds simple enough." Luffy nodded in agreement.

"Sounding and actually doing are completely different things. What can you guys do anyways?"

"Slicing"

"Stretching"

"Thieving"

"Killing"

"I'll be hiding."

"You're going to be fighting too!" Their reaction time was incredible.

"I-t was a joke! I will fight!" Usopp somehow managed to say with an arm around his neck. Once released, he ran back into town and quickly returned with three barrels and placed them onto the slope. Popping the corks off, they spewed out some brown liquid which I assumed to be an some sort of oil.

"With this they won't be able to climb up the slope. Not with this oil covering the entire path. When they slip on the oil we'll jump in and defeat them."

"Hmm…" Nami got closer and inspected the job.

"Just got to be careful not to slip on it." I said specifically to Luffy who though seated had a foot in it.

"You're smart for coming up with this." Luffy praised.

"O-of course I am! I have the utmost confidence in myself when it comes down to traps and my slingshot!" Well that's good, it was almost time.

"Dawn is approaching, they'll be here soon." Zoro commented, my hands were beginning to shake. Shit, this is the worst possible time for my lack of sleep to start affecting me. And to make it even better he had noticed. "There's no need to be scared, I'll protect you." The bastard was mocking me. I growled, which made him laugh.

"Yah, Rai. It'll be ok." Luffy moved to place a hand onto my back, I tensed up and slapped it away then took a few steps back.

"I'm not afraid of a bunch of stupid pirates." I huffed, Luffy hid the look of shock and smiled brightly.

We waited for the Kuro Pirates to make their way up the trap even past sunrise.

"Not here yet? And the day is so nice too. What do you guys think happened?" Usopp asked.

"Maybe they overslept." I sighed at the Captain.

"That only applies to the both of you." I told Luffy and Zoro. But something was wrong. According to Luffy and Usopp they were to attack at dawn.

"They'll definitely be here. Soon." Usopp held his will strong. I noticed Nami turn and make a face.

"Nami?" She shushed me and cupped her hands to her ears.

"Do you hear that?" I listened closely. "It sounds like people shouting somewhere." She walked around a bit. "That's defiantly the sound of people."

"Actually," All eyes went to Usopp.

"What is it?" The Swordsman almost shouted.

"Oh crap! There's a slope exactly like this one to the North!"

"Were at the wrong slope?" Luffy shouted.

"I heard them say coast so I assumed it was this one!" Usopp defended.

"We've got to hurry, or else they'll reach the village first!" I yelled at him, while surprising myself at my sudden interest in helping their cause.

"Where is this coast?!"

"Head straight north from here and you should reach it in about 3 minutes, It looks the same as this one." Usopp tried to remain calm. "We need to get there as soon as possible and stop them from climbing up-"

"Don't worry we'll make it."

"OH CRAP!" Nami's shriek interrupted Usopp and Luffy's conversation as well as scared me half way to a heart attack.

"What now?!" I yelled back.

"All my treasure is on the boats in the Northern coast you just mentioned!" You have got to be kidding me! That's the most pathetic – CRAP! The prize I had to turn is there too! Shit! If it's just North of here then I could make it and keep the pirates from taking it. Yah, but I would have to go alone, I don't need anyone to slow me down.

"We'll be there in 20 seconds!" Luffy announced.

"We?" He wrapped an arm around my waist and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatos. "LUFFY PUT ME DOWN!"

"NO TIME! HEAD STRAIGHT NORTH!"

"THEN WHY'D YOU PICK ME UP! LUFFY! PUT ME DOWN!" He made no intention of doing so, instead kept repeating 'head straight north' over and over again. Then suddenly he stopped.

"Finally." I sighed trying to unwrap his arm.

"Why are we at the village?"

"Village? Didn't you go straight?"

"He said to go north so I went towards the place that was cooler." He panted.

"…LUFFY!" I screamed as he put me down, this time he grabbed my wrist.

"HEAD STRAIGHT NORTH HEAD STRAIGHT NORTH HEAD STRAIGHT NORTH HEAD STRAIGHT NORTH!" he wasn't even looking where he was running! At this rate they will reach the other pirates! I have to- umph! I had crashed into Luffy who had crashed into a stone wall. "WHICH WAY IS NORTH?!"

"YOU DIDN'T GO STRAIGHT!" This was too much. "THAT'S IT! YOU'RE FOLLOWING ME THIS TIME!" I grabbed onto him pulled him up and ran towards the path we were supposed to take.

"NOW YOU'RE NOT GOING STRAIGHT!"

"SHUT UP!"

"LUFFY?! RAI?!" I looked back without stopping to see the Swordsman covered in oil and running towards us.

"Oh, Zoro you got lost too?"

"Why are you here!?" he panted at me.

"Ask the idiot." I let Luffy go, trusting he would not go running in the wrong direction with Zoro and I only inches away.

"There it is!" The Captain cheered. Thank the Gods. My head was spinning but I was still able to breath just fine, for now.

"They're climbing up!" Zoro pointed at the men wearing cat ears, wait, cat ears?

"Not for long!" Luffy laughed, seeing as my only available weapon at the moment was my rod ( because leaving my swords and bow was such a great idea) I took it out and swung towards the climbing pirates, and with Zoro and Luffys help sent them flying back towards the slope they had climbed. We walked closer to find Nami sitting in the grass and Usopp sprawled out of the ground.

"What's all this?"

"How do I know, but I'm still pissed." Luffy was panting.

"I have so much steam to let off." My breathing was choppy, and my eyes felt tingly.

"Nami! How dare you trample down on me at the slope!" Trample?

"One of us had to make it here." Nami sighed as if it were obvious the one was her.

"Usopp! You bastard you didn't tell me which was north!"

"That's your own fault!" I hit him over the head with my fist.

* * *

**AN:** Chapter three! Man, I suck at updating.

I apologize for the slowness of it. It'll pick up in the next few chapters, if all goes as planned.

Review please, It helps gets me pumped to write.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:**_I've been trying to write this for the past month. Then there was only two weeks of school left till break, so I decided HEY LETS NOT DO ALL THIS SCHOOL CRAP UNTIL THE VERY LAST MINUTE! YAAAAAH!_

_NO! Don't do it SAVE YOURSELES THE ANGER AND SLEEP DEPRIVATION! That's pretty much it for excuses._

_So, here you go!_

_Thank you to all you lovelies who read this nonsense!_

_And a very, very special thanks to Purple Dragon Ranger, 4fireking, PirateKlair, Totong, DinoZilla and Fanboy316 for your reviews! They get me pumped to keep writing! THANK YOU!_

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, it all goes to the wonderful Eiichiro Oda.

* * *

Chapter 4

The injured pirate had huddled in a group and were talking, about what? I don't know because my head was pounding. If it's not one thing it's the other, great.

"They still want to fight? How stubborn." Luffy commented.

"Wait," I took a step forward, whoa there let's not take a face full of ground, it was not bad enough to keep me from seeing the hypnotist was at the center of the circle holding that ring on a string again.

"What are they doing?"

"Being hypnotized to get stronger? How stupid." Nami said and continued to stare down at the pirates.

"Unless it works." She stared at me. "If it worked on the kids, why shouldn't it work on them?"

They had begun to scream and shout, one of them walked right into the side of the cliff and punched it. A crack formed from where he had made contact with the stone and from there it spread up the side until it broke off and fell around the rest of them, who cheered senselessly.

"That's impressive." I spoke absentmindedly.

"They can destroy a cliff with one fist?!" Zoro yelled. "You have got to be kidding me!"

"No way! How can a bunch of half dead guys get up and be that strong!" Nami's voice shook.

"And that's what just one of those whole bunch of guys can do!" Usopp cried, just after he had said so Jango turned and pointed towards us, telling the mob to run in that direction, fantastic.

"You two get back."

"She's right. Rai, Luffy and me will handle this just go." Usopp nodded and did as told. I stared at the Swordsman. I never liked those bastards, they are sly asses with no regard for "humanity". He gave me a quick look followed by a smirk, I frowned.

"Now's not the time to be love struck, Onna." Wait…WHAT?! "Hey, Luffy." I'll plan a suitable plan for revenge later.

"Luffy?" I repeated, he had his head down and hadn't moved for a while. He slowly raised his head, and let out a startling scream.

"He was hypnotized too?!"I went to stop him but felt a pain in my chest. Let's play the "how-much-more-can-I-fuck-this-body-up" game!

"Can he really be that stupid?" Nami screamed.

"Luffy! Where are you going?" Zoro yelled. The Captain had run down the slope screaming.

"GUM GUM MACHINE GUN!" With one move he cleared the slope again, but he didn't stop. He kept running, past the fallen pirates, past the end of the slope, past the hypnotist, until he had run into the enemy's ship. He stood there for a while, it looked like he was hugging it. Then he yelled again this time he had completely ripped off the prow of the ship, and turned to face the fallen pirates. He was going to use that as a weapon?

"Captain Jango, do something!" A coir of the pirated cried. The hypnotist held out the ring again and swung it, repeating "one, two, Jango" this time Luffy fell to the floor with the prow crashing on top of him, and the rest of the pirates that were too close to escape. One look and I would have pronounced him dead but seeing as he was a rubber man, I highly doubt that.

"That seems to have got them." Nami walked back towards Zoro with Usopp's arm around her neck.

"Oi, shouldn't we be worrying about Luffy?"

Zoro gave him "cool guy" smirk. "You should worry about your own injuries." So this is over and done with. I walked back up the slope and sat down on the grass and tried to regulate my breathing. Getting an attack would be the last thing I needed at the moment. I closed my eyes and felt the stinging telling me sleep was needed. It had been quite a few days since the last time.

"Rai?" I raised my hand as to stop Usopp from talking.

"I'm fine."

"What's this?" A voice rang out that seemed to come from their ship.

"Our trump card." Jango turned to the voice. "Come on out! Nyaban Brothers!" Two shadows emerged and jumped out into the open beside the obnoxious new Captain. There were too many on this small island.

"Yes, Captain Jango." Said the slim one with green hair that very strongly resembled seaweed, and gave me the urge to claw his eyes out.

"You called?" The other one said, he was fatter than the first one, wore a cape and- is he a cow? With cat ears? Wait. Oh ok, he's a large cat with ears. Still don't understand but makes more sense than a cow.

"Sham and Buchi! Together we are the, Nyaban Brothers." If I didn't feel sick before, I did now.

"Buchi, Sham. Our job is to get past this slope but as you can clearly see, he's blocking our way. Take care of it."

"But- that's impossible for us to do! Right Buchi?" Sham squeaked.

"Y-yah, he looks really strong and besides our job is to look after the ship." The two cowered in fear. Excuse me, do I not look strong too?

"We're not supposed to fight." Sham cowered even more.

"Aren't they supposed to be their trump cards?" Usopp asked.

"They're acting strange." I stretched my arms up to pop my back a few times as I stood up.

"Yah, are they planning something?" Nami asked as a screaming Sham began to run up the slope in the worst possible way. "This can't be serious."

"What the hell am I supposed to do about this guy? Look! If you don't stop I'm going to have to kill you!" Zoro yelled unsurely. Can't blame him, I wouldn't know and don't what to do either. Suddenly the screaming stopped.

"Only if you can."

"What the-" I spoke before anyone else, but I'm pretty sure we were all thinking the same thing. Zoro had managed to lift his katana in a defensive position and avoided the claws. He let go and jumped back with a smile on his face and two extra things on his back, what were they? Oh.

"Zoro!" He had noticed.

"Give those katana back to me!" He growled.

"Back to you? But you've already have one in your hand." Sham held the two others in his hands and sounded like he was purring. "These'll only get in the way." And with that he threw them behind, down the slope. From behind I could see Zoro tense up in anger, a reasonable act. "Ah, now I feel so much lighter." Zoro took a step forward and in a blink of an eye sliced Sham's middle and ran after his discarded swords.

_He's fast._

Sham jumped up and landed on the Swordsman's back and held his arms back, causing him to slide on the rock for a bit.

"Buchi! Your turn!" The other jumped as well aiming for a headshot with his foot when he came back down, lucky for Zoro, I was fast too. I managed to punch Sham away and pull Roronoa back before the fat cat hit the ground. In the process I fell back thus making him fall over me. Gods he was heavy!

"I would have gotten away." He huffed.

"You're very welcome." I growled, letting go of the back of his shirt and pushed him. He got the message and rolled off.

"Sham, hold him down properly!" Buchi screeched in an annoying voice.

"Sorry, I did not expect that woman to get in the way."

"This is my fight," Zoro said standing.

"I'm sorry if you didn't notice, he almost broke your skull!" I pointed to the snarling cat people.

"Get back!" He nudged me to the side as the two attacked him. With one sword he blocked every attack they threw. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a bullet fly towards one of the cats and heard Usopp's voice, before I could make my move the marble hit Zoro's back with the speed of a bullet. Unfortunately his heroic notion gave the brothers an opening and took it to carve claw marks into his chest.

"Fool, do you want to get hurt?" He said through his teeth towards Usopp. As for me, I have never been one to enjoy the side lines. I placed and end of my rod to my shadow and made it take shape, just as the pirates were going to attack the Swordsman again I swung my scythe and drew their attention to me.

"I told you to back off."

"I don't take orders from you!" I sneered back and swinging my weapon at them again, the two dodged but the cut sliced through the rock where they would have been. My eyes tingled as they turned gold this got a reaction from the brothers that distracted them just enough for me to predict they would appear behind me, I would have taken the opportunity to attack but I saw a figure move out of the corner of my eye.

_Nami? What is she doing?_

"Onna, pay attention!" I turned back to the enemy and found Zoro once again blocking the cats attack. I would have attacked by they stood in fear starring at the top of the slope. So I looked back keeping the blade down at my feet just in case I needed to slice someone in half while I turned around. At the very top stood everyone's most hated butler, Glasses, looked rather pissed.

"It's Captain Kuro,"

"We're all going to die."

_The pirates were terrified, of Glasses?_

He opened his mouth and with a surprising booming voice yelled. "It's passed dawn and my plan still hasn't been set in motion!? What's going on?! Don't tell me you were stopped by these bunch of weakling. Have the Kuroneko pirates really sunk that low? Well? Say something Jango!"

"But you said that kid wouldn't try and stop us."

"So what? It shouldn't be a problem anyways. You should know that only means you're all weaker than I originally thought. I don't want to hear any more excuses." Glasses barked back.

"How dare you call us weak," Sham hissed.

"Watch what you say, Captain Kuro." Buchi did the same.

"True you were once quite strong. But that was 3 years ago, did you really think we just sat around and did nothing?"

"We invaded towns, destroyed villages, and sunk pirate ships! We got stronger!"

"Just because you're plan isn't working do you think we're going to let you kill us that easily?" I felt a hand on mine and nearly killed the owner before I saw who it was.

"Take a few steps back." I did as Zoro said, and stopped when I bumped into him. He moved his hand to my forearm making me that much more uncomfortable.

_Relax, it's not __**him**__. You're fine. It's just Zoro._

"It's been 3 years, you can't defeat us! We're the strongest, we're the Nyaban Brothers!" The two headed straight for Glasses, they had completely forgotten our fight. They sliced at where he was standing with their fake claws, but he was way too fast and all that remained was the bag Glasses had been carrying.

"Who did you say you would kill?" Glasses stood behind them wearing black gloves with five katana on each hand.

Zoro's grip on my arm tightened. "What are those weapons?" The Brothers turned, he had disappeared again, his time to have his arms around each of their necks with a thumb-sword pointed at each of their necks.

"5 minutes." He spoke in a low voice. "You have 5 minutes to defeat them, or I kill everyone here." The pirate screamed and cried how they didn't want to die. The ones in Glasses' grip stared directly at Zoro and I.

"Still think you can handle it?" I whispered.

"Hn." He let go of my arm and gently pushed me to the side again. "Don't take me lightly."

"All we have to do is defeat those two!"

"Yah and the woman is nothing!"

_GET YOUR ASS UP HERE AND LET ME SHOW YOU HOW MUCH NOTHING I'VE GOT!_

"Zoro!" Nami yelled kicking his katana over in our direction. She was injured, how'd that happen?

"You kicked my swords!" Zoro retaliated.

"How 'bout a thank you!"

"Yah yah, thanks!" He put them back in his haramaki and unsheathed them placing one in his mouth, the bastard would give me no opportunity to help. I let the shadow go, but kept the rod. "Heh, now you've got it."

"Just this once." I sighed, he gave me a creepy lopsided smile.

"You think having three swords makes a difference? You're not stronger than us!" And yet two seconds ago Glasses scared them shitless after they said that.

"You don't get it. It's not three swords, it Santoryuu." Zoro gave me a look that basically said "back the fuck up", so I took a couple of lengthy steps back. He got into position and waited for the precise moment. "Lion Killing Swords!" With that they hit the floor, hard. I'm pretty sure I heard the all too familiar sound of bones breaking.

"H-he beat the Nyanban Brothers in one hit?!" The voices behind me yelled. Zoro pointed a katana at Glasses.

"Don't worry, I'll defeat you before he 5 minutes are up."

"Just you try." He pushed his glasses up with his palm. Now that made sense, if he had used his fingers the blades would have cut his face.

"Captain Jango, hypnotize me!" What? I turned around with enough time to see Jango swing the ring back, Buchi stood up with a wound on his stomach and yelled.

_HIS BONES ARE BROKEN!_

I was so tired of this trick, if someone doesn't do it soon I will slit their throats. Just behind Jango, Nami was running towards the broken off. What is she doing? I caught sight of the Hypnotist pull something shinny out of his coat jacket and get ready to throw it.

"NAMI!" I screamed already on the move toward it. I caught a shadow and remade the blade, I had a fraction of a second before it hit her. I have to make it.

"Die!" Jango yelled, I wouldn't make it. My starting point had been too far, there was no way for me to get there in time. The ring was just about to make contact with her throat when she-dodged it? No, she had slipped and fallen to the ground, not even a foot in front of her Luffy had gotten to a mouthful of flying ring. It stopped, not at all what I expected. Holding it in his mouth the Captain bit down and broke the damn thing.

"OWWW!" Was the first thing he yelled. "NAMI! THAT HURT!" That's it? Not the metal he just broke? WITH HIS TEETH?! _What is wrong with these people!_

"You-" I shook my head. "At least you're awake now." I was barely audible to myself.

"That wasn't me!" She defended I stood my ground. I wasn't too far from the new scene or where I previously was, about where Nami had been standing before.

"Ah, Nami you're bleeding!" Oh yah! Maybe I should do something to help…

"It's just a scratch I'll be fine." She smiled. "Anyways that's not important, we've to win this battle!" She's actually thinking about something other than-

"For my money." I let out an exasperated sigh. She didn't even try to sound sincere.

"One minute left." The pirates around me started to spasm and scream for their lives. I watched Luffy secure the straw hat to his head and walk towards were I stood as the weaklings made a path for him. It was actually amusing to watch, but now was not the time. That was not good for either crew. Glasses' pirates would not be able to defeat Luffy and his, but then Glasses himself will come down off his royal ass and try to take matters into his own hands. What a mess.

"Buchi, play times over. You take care of the one in the haramaki, I'll deal with this guy and the girl with the stick." Hey, I am noticed. Luffy now stood next to me, glaring at the hypnotist.

"Rai-"

"If you tell me to back off too, I will hurt you." He gave me an odd look.

"Why is the butler guy here?" I shrugged.

"Klahadore! Stop this!"

_Who the fuck is it this time? Don't tell me there are more-_

I turned my attention from Luffy to the top of the slope and saw that pale girl from yesterday. She was in no condition to be out here in the middle of this chaos.

"Kaya? What are you doing here?!"

"It's that girl from the mansion." Jango seemed shocked, not that I wasn't either, but there seemed to be a bit of glee in his voice.

"If we kill her then we don't have to destroy the village!" Oh. Makes sense.

"Kaya- what a surprise. Why are you here?" Glasses spoke in a monotone voice.

"Meri told me everything."

"So, he's still alive. I thought for sure I had killed him." Kaya looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"I-I'm sorry, Usopp. I didn't believe you when you told me Klahadore was a pirate."

"Forget about that! Why are you here? I told you to run away from this village!" So that's what he was doing when he was injured.

"Don't you understand? They want to kill you! And you're still fighting!"

_Thank you for pointing that out._

"We all treated you badly and you still fight for us." Kaya looked back at Glasses with an attempt at a stern face. "Klahadore, if you want my money, you can have it. Just leave this village alone!"

"You do not understand Kaya-San. I want your money, and a "peaceful" life." He pushed up his glasses again.

_Then why did he become a pirate?_

"The villagers that trusted me became a part of this peaceful life. My plan won't be complete until I have both. There the pirates and your will are the most important part of it."

"Run Kaya! There's no point in taking to him! He's not the butler you knew!"

_There we go, the first sensible thing anyone has said thus far. Maybe now some progress will actually be- oh crap.  
_  
Kaya had pulled a gun from God knows where and pointed it relatively straight at Glasses.

_Stupid girl!_

"Leave this village!" She screamed.

"Hm, you've become a bit stronger in the past three years." Glasses kept talking to her but in a hushed voice. "Miss Kaya, do you still remember everything that has happened in these past three years?" Glasses took of one of his katana gloves and pushed up his glasses. "I still remember all those days we spent together."

Yah, that doesn't sound creeper like at all.

"We went shopping together. I nursed you when you fell ill. I gave you everything I had." Kaya had tears streaming down her face, and the gun in her hand was shaking with the rest of her weak body. "I always, always endured it." Glasses slowly walked towards her and placed a hand on the weapon. "I endured it, so that one day…I would kill you. That day is today."

_I see save that anger till the day the deed would be done. Nice tactic, too slow for my taste in killing, but effective none the less. Maybe he was smarter than he looked, nah._

Glasses took the gun from Kaya's weak grip. "I, the great Captain Kuro, had to keep a smile on a spoiled little brat, and as much as I hated it, I kept it up." He released the gun and let it fall to the floor.

"You bastard." Usopp snarled.

"Can you understand how humiliating it was? Can you imagine me, the former Captain Kuro doing such things?!" I could feel Luffys anger. I looked at his face, he didn't look like the seventeen year happy go lucky kid anymore.

"KURO!" Next thing I knew Usopp had the gun Kaya once held, pointed at Glasses. The bang rang out but there was no smell of blood. He had managed to dodge it. My eyes could not keep up, and only saw the end result with Glasses' katana glove back onto his hand and the five blades around Usops head.

"You still owe me for that punch to the face, you hit me pretty hard."

_Yatada, I'm pissed. _

I ran up the slope before Luffy could begin the attack he obviously had planned for Glasses. I made it first and with a small pocket knife I had hidden in one of my pant legs moved the blades so that Usopp had enough space to duck before Luffy's punch would hit Sir Dick of Dickville.

"What are-" Usopp didn't more, he was staring at something, presumably at the rubber hand. I pulled him down to the side in time to avoid the punch. It made contact with Glasses.

"Since you hate it so much I'll give you a hundred more!" I was grinning from ear to ear. Everyone else besides Zoro and Nami were aghast. With good reason. It's not every day you see that bizarre of a devil fruit.

"What the hell was that?!" The Kuro Neko pirates were shaking, so was Usopp. I guess almost having taken a rubber fist to the face would have been a fright.

"His arm stretched!"

"He hit the Captain!"

"Captain Kuro's down!" I don't think Glasses was passed out, but he wasn't moving either. He just laid there like it was the most compostable patch of grass in the world.

"Are you two ok?" I stook over Usopp and Kaya, their legs seem to have given way. Kaya ignored me and looked over at the fallen man cat and Usopp mumbled unintelligible nonsense. I could hear the sound of screaming, was the village under attack? No, it was getting louder. Coming towards us, I looked to the path we had taken to get here and there were three silhouettes.

"THE USOPP PIRATES REPORTING FOR DUTY!" Oh fuck no. They had shovels at hand, and I'm pretty sure they were planning on- Yep. They had begun to attack the face of the man lying on the ground

"You guys!"

"STOP!" Kaya shrieked.

"GIVE UP!" Pepper yelled.

"KILL HIM!"

"DON'T YOU DARE ATTACK THIS VILLAGE!" Onions voice didn't waver.

"Don't!" Usopp's voice was not distinguishable from their screams. This was ridiculous, sure the kids standing up against a pirate like Glasses was great and all, but it just made the situation worse.

"You guys, stop!" This time they listened to Usopp, and stood above Glasses.

"I think he's suffered enough by now." They looked to Usopp and walked over to him and Kaya with smiles on their faces.

"Captain, you were fighting them! Why didn't you tell us the truth? Do you not trust us? Is there-"

Usopp interrupted Peppers accusations. "Forget about that! Just get out of here!"

"No!"

"We want to fight with you captain!"

"If we ran then that would disgrace the Usopp Pirate crew!" Behind Onion, Glasses was getting up again. Fuck! I got my rod out, AGAIN! After eleven years of having this job you would think I would be smarter than to leave all my other weapons, except for small daggers, behind. Good job Raizen.

To my surprise Glasses walked right past the kids, Kaya, and myself. Was he going after Luffy? To paused by Usopp and with a swift kick sent him back to the slope.

"CAPTAIN!" I stopped them from running to him, they were in too much trouble as is. But that doesn't mean I have to stay away too.

"I'm sorry, but keep them from doing that again." I turned to Kaya. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and nodded. I ran past Glasses and helped Usopp. "Hey, how're you holding up?"

"I've been better." He coughed and tightly wrapped his arms around his midsection. I gently removed them and felt my way around, he had two broken ribs. "Ow." He moved my hand away.

"Jango! I will take care of this kid. Take care of Miss Kaya, she will write the will as I planned. Then kill her." Usopp started shaking. "And as for the three kids, they're an eye soar. Kill them."

"My pleasure."

"No," Usopp was just barely audible. I hushed him, he was injured enough already. Glasses didn't move, so I looked over in time to hear Buchi scream something and jump into the air again, to attack the Swordsman. He jumped out of the way, I would made some remark but the repercussion of the cats attack was breaking stone under where Usopp and I sat. I tried to hold on to him, but that only sent me tumbling forward and had the back of my head hit one of the crumbling boulders on top of that a sharp edge came down and cut my forehead. My eyes unfocused but I could hear the footsteps that I assume were the Hypnotists' coming up the slope. Fuck!

"Kaya!" Usopp yelled. As far as I could tell, Usopp wasn't injured too much, I sat up and touched where I the rock had hit my head, of course there was blood. This is pathetic even more me. "Usopp Pirates! Listen,"

"We're not running!"

"Protect Kaya, don't argue with me. I'm giving you the most important mission ever. Protect Kaya, get her out of here. We became pirates to protect what we cherish most! This is the Captains order."

"YES SIR!"

"C'mon Kaya!"

"This way, hurry!"

"Jango." Glasses insisted.

"Shit, I spaced out." Are you kidding me? "You'll never get away from me- AUGH!" That's not what's supposed to happen. I opened my eyes and could make out Usopp's shape holding something, his slingshot. "You bastard!" Usopp chuckled softly.

"Hurry up and get them!" Glasses yelled.

"Alright, fine!"

"It's hopeless, I know exactly how bad Kaya's condition is. There's no way they can escape Jango. You might be able to go after them, if you can get up that slope. Buchi, finish him." I got up and dusted the crap off myself and looked at Glasses' expression. Buchi had fallen. A loud bam was heard coming from the forest where the kids and Kaya had run into.

"What was that?"

"Who knows, Jango's got them covered, you should probably go check. Though, it's probably too late.

"Bastard." I startled myself for saying so, when did I start caring?

"You lived under the same roof for three years, don't you feel anything for her?" Usopp didn't understand this guy any more than I did. How did any of this make sense? If he did kill Kaya, how would the villagers react? They would eventually question something, unless they actually were a bunch of idiots.

"Weren't you listening, that girl means nothing to me. She is only a part of my plan. Maybe I'll thank her after she's dead." I gritted my teeth.

"You-"

"Usopp!" Luffy called out. "You go look for them, leave the rest to us." Zoro agreed. Usopp looked at me, I nodded. He pushed himself off the ground, I would have helped but he shook his head. Men and their pride.

"You can still move? How unexpected."

"Shut up," Usopp huffed. "I won't let you get away with this, you betrayed the villagers, you betrayed Kaya. Do you really think you can go around and do whatever you want?" He took a step back.

"Usopp," I caught him before the impact. His heart was racing, he was out of adrenaline.

"Dammit, I can't move."

"You're past you're limits." I sighed.

"You really are a joke. I betrayed them you say? Don't you see, that was all part of the plan! This isn't some game where you play pirates. Just stay there in that girls arms."

"I don't care, I will protect them. Because I am Captain Usopp of the Usopp pirates, and I won't let any of you set one foot onto this village!" The rest of the pirates were laughing. My eyes felt tingly and the shadows made from the stray rocks and cliffs were slowly making their way towards them, though Luffy beat me to them when he slammed a decent sized boulder next to them and sent the wimps running. I took a breath and let them go back into place. Zoro walked up to me and took Usopp of my shoulders and threw him over his.

"Luffy, I'll take Usopp and go after the hypnotist. Is there a problem with that?" He announced.

"No, let going."

"Hey! He's in no condition to be wandering around the forest."

"That's why you're coming too."

"Hu?"

"When we reach them, you can deal with his injuries." Zoro shook the teenager a bit. "I'm taking Rai too." Luffy didn't reply. I shook my head but walked beside him anyways.

"I'm sorry…"

"I would be faster if I were alone, but I don't know these woods so I'll need your help."

"Then me tagging along would be of no help either." I whispered.

"Where do you think you're going? Who gave you permission to go anywhere?" Glasses' talking was really pissing me off.

"That would be, ME!" Out of the corner of my eye I could see Luffy's stretched arm go past Glasses. "Hurry! Zoro, find them!"

"Which way?" Zoro asked.

"Over there, they ran through there."

-#-

I went ahead and looked for signs of fresh tracks. There were some more sounds, particularly of things crashing down. The sprinting quickly turned into desperate running, until Zoro and I had no idea where we were.

"Now what?"

"East, go east! Did you hear me! I said east!"

"Just say left or right!" Zoro yelled back.

"East is left!" I huffed.

"Are you sure? That's where we came from."

"LEFT!" Usopp and I screamed.

"ALRIGHT!" He turned sharply around and ran the opposite direction.

"LEFT YOU MORON! THIS WAY!" This was just as bad, if not worse than when Luffy dragged me around.

"HE SAID LEFT!"

"THIS WAY!" I went back and grabbed his writs then ran LEFT. Yep, Exactly like Luffy.

"ALRIGHT STOP YANKING ME AROUND!"

"THEN STOP GETTING LOST!"

"HIS DIRECTIONS WERE UNCLEAR!"

"UNCLEAR?! HE SPECIFACLY TOLD YOU EAST, THEN WENT ON TO SAY LEFT!"

"I WENT LEFT!"

"YOU WENT RIGHT!"

"We found them! Found them, found them found them!" Usopp repeatedly hit Zoros wound, I felt no pity. He deserved it.

"That's my wound!"

"Over there!" Usopp pointed to a small clearing. Sure enough there was Kaya, back to a tree with the hypnotist threatening her.

"I'm on it! Watch him." Zoro sped off into that direction and literal threw the injured man ON TOP OF ME!

"HEY!" I pushed the Captain off and stood up "He's not going to make it…"

"Help me up." I nodded and helped him up onto his feet. He was still swaying. "Shit." He pulled the sling shot and a bullet out of his satchel and turned his back to me.

_He was going to shoot? From here? He can barely stand._

"If only-" Zoro cut the branch that would have kept Usopp from reaching his mark. "That's it, those branches were on my way." He stumbled forward, I wrapped my arms around his waist to keep him steady. "Thanks."

"Make it count." I smiled. He pulled it back, his arm tended up with the rest of his body, in anticipation for the release.

"True Shoot! Fire Star!" Upon letting it go, the Captains legs gave way, if I hadn't been holding him up he would had injured himself again. "Did it work?"

"Like a charm, good job." I patted his back as I threw one of his arms around my shoulder and walked him over to where Kaya was. Once there I noticed the Swordsman take off his bandana and walk back into the forest. I followed. I didn't want to be a part of that conversation, besides they probably wanted to talk some things out. I caught up to Zoro but didn't say anything, neither did he. It wasn't till we walked out of the forest and came upon the end of the island I asked.

"Where were you going?" He turned a bright red and turned around walking back into the forest. I shook my head and followed him with my head down, starring at where I placed my feet. My eyes felt heavy along with the rest of my body, the next time I sat down would be to sleep.

"How's your head?" I looked up.

"Fine. How're your wounds?"

"Fine." He didn't say anything. But stopped walking and just starred ahead. I looked to where he was then back at him.

"You're lost, aren't you." He frowned. Great. I looked around. There were a bunch of trees cut about three feet from the roots. Considering how even they were and how smooth the cut was, it was probably done by Jango. At any rate the fallen trees made even more shadows for me to use. I "pulled" them all in, then spread them out in order to find where Luffy and Nami were. It took about two minutes to find them, once I did I put all the other shadows back in their proper place, except for the one that lead to my target. "This way." Reluctantly Zoro followed. He wasn't all that far actually, but if he had kept going the direction he was, we would have reached the other side of the island.

"They're gone." I noticed.

"Oh! Zoro, Rai!" Luffy smiled. He was laying down with new claw marks scattered along his body, Nami sat beside him hugging a bundle I assume to be treasure. Zoro sat so he was leaning on what remained of the shattered cliff side. I didn't trust the way the rocks were still falling, even if they were small. So I looked around for a nice place to nap and chose to lie down next to Nami, the only problem was the sun, I covered my eyes with the back of my wrist and with that I was out.

* * *

**A/N: **Huzzah! I wrote half of it at 1 am, cause why not, so I apologize for the errors.

Now, two weeks of some much needed sleep. I'll try to put another up soon.

Thanks for reading, reviews would be great!

…BYE!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** So, my laptop died. It'll be fixed in a month or so but I won't be able to retrieve those files so I have to start all over again. I had this chapter edited on there but luckily I sent this to my phone cause I lay in bed 'til 3am and write. The other chapters I had started (including Rai's arc) are gone so bear with me while I try to replicate it. My updates are going to be whenever I can get my hands on a computer. Sorry for the wait, here it is.

**Discalimer:** One Piece belongs to Oda, and Rai belongs to me.

* * *

Chapter 5

_"I know you're not my mother." The pale six year old, black haired, blue eyed girl stood in the door way. Her soft cyan dress was torn to shreds and blood trickled down her filthy face._

_"Aayana! What on earth? Where have you been?" The woman picked up her dress, ran to the child and immediately began to whips the blood away with a white handkerchief. "I was so worried!"_

_"Who are you?"_

_"Aya-"_

_"Raizen." The child interrupted._

_"I am your mother-"_

_"There is no need to lie. I am not as naïve as you take me to be. So, who are you?"_

_"Who told you this?" The child remained silent, and stared at her bare feet._

_"Fine, then tell me why I don't have a heartbeat."_

_"Aayana,"_

_"Raizen, and I know I'm different but-"_

_"No, sweetheart. You are an Asura, just like the rest of us." The woman took the child's hands in hers._

_"I'm a 'half-breed'"_

_"Ayana-"_

_"Raizen."_

_"That is not your name."_

_"It's what my brothers call me, besides 'Aayana's' too girly." The woman sighed and sat the girl on her bed._

_"Listen to me, Aayana, you are correct. I am not your birth mother, she was my beloved younger cousin. She asked me to take you in, and but that doesn't mean I love you any less than I do my own children." The woman blinked back a few tears before continuing. "She was the one who chose that name for you before she died."_

_"Before I killed her."_

_"What? Who told you that? Was it Hiro? That trouble maker. Just because he's your older brother doesn't give him the right to fill your head with-"_

_"No, I heard_

_**that man** said so, he said I took her life when I was born." The woman sighed._

_"Well he's wrong. My dear cousin never once regretted having you, she just wanted you to grow up to be a strong and healthy young lady."_

_"I don't want to be a lady. I just want to be a soldier." The child stressed._

_"About that, you have to stop picking fights with your brothers; they're all at least three years older than you."_

_"And I can still beat their asses."_

_"AYA!"_

_"What? It's true! I beat Masaru, Hiro, and Kai today!" She smiled and reviled her bloody teeth._

_"Where did I go wrong with you child? Get out of that torn dress, we have to get you cleaned up for the party," The woman walked over to the wardrobe and picked out another frilly purple dress. "After all, you're turning seven tonight, a very special day for you." The child held a frown on her face in protest._

-#-

"Raizen, oh jeez. Rai you can't fall asleep in a restaurant." I cracked one eye open and starred at Nami as she put down the fork in her hand. We had gone back to the restaurant after our injuries had been taken care of and the dirty clothes had been changed. There was no need to frighten the villagers.

"Says who?" I grunted back.

"It's rude."

"I don't care." I said stuffing my head back into my arms.

"Why are you tired anyways?" Luffy stuffed a fish down his throat.

"Oh I don't know, maybe because someone woke me up ten minutes after I fell asleep!"

"That's your own fault." He chugged a pint of some alcohol beside me.

"And how is that Roronoa?"

"You chose to take a nap in the middle of that slope; we weren't going to leave you there." Nami patted my back.

"I would have preferred that." I yawned.

"Haven't you been sleeping well?" She asked.

_No, as a matter of fact I haven't gotten the chance to._

This was probably the first time I didn't have some nightmare that included someone dying. I can be assured that they will soon go back to normal, if I wasn't tired enough. I sat up and stretched my arms over my head.

"Fine no more sleeping in the restaurant, but nobody better wake me up next time I fall asleep." I chugged another cup of tea as Nami giggled across from me.

"Since we've eaten, it's about time to go." Zoro turned to the navigator.

"Sounds good." Luffy chimmed, he then leaned out of the booth and smiled. "Hi ma'am."

"Should you really be out of bed?" Nami asked. Kaya walked over to our booth and smiled happily.

"I'm fine." He placed her hands on top of one another. I chuckled, the only way my "mother" ever got me to do that was when she bribed me with sweets. "My illness was caused by the shock of losing my parents."

_Ah yes. That feeling._

"But with Usopp coming to cheer me up every day, I've decided to try harder to get better. Anyways, you said you needed a ship right?" Her smile brightened.

"You'll give us one?!" Luffy dropped the fish tail he had been chewing on. "Really?" Kaya nodded. She told us to meet her at the slope where we had been earlier this morning, and then she left. Luffy couldn't hold back his excitement so he decided the best thing to do was stand up and run out of the restaurant.

"Who's going after him?" Zoro looked at me.

"Hell no, I'm not going thought that again." I frowned. "You go."

"Nami?"

"No." She crossed her arms informs of her chest.

"Bye." I waved at the Swordsman. He growled, but went after Luffy none the less. "So, you're paying?"

"Rai!"

"What? I'm broke." She stared intently at me, I shrugged.

"Fine. Here." He handed me the money and left. I walked to the nice old man and paid. It took a while mostly because he was partly blind.

"I'm sorry dear."

"Oh, it's alright. I'm in no rush." I spoke softly. I noticed the newspaper on top of the counter where I was currently leaning on. The front cover grabbed my attention; it was a picture of Alabasta. It had been years since I had been there. I remember I used to play with the princess when we were kids.

"Here you are child." The man took my hand and put the beri into it. "Have a nice day." I bowed my head.

"Thanks, you too." I walked outside to see Nami pulling Luffy's cheek. Zoro was cursing about something or another. "So are we going or what?"

"Change." Nami held her palm out to me; I handed the money back and watched as she carefully counted it. I shook my head and shoved my hands in my pockets as I started walking back towards where Nami and I argued about whether I should bring my swords and bow or not. Eventually we agreed that I would bring knives instead of the bigger weapons that would probably worry the villagers. Personally I think there was nothing wrong with them but I guess it might worry them.

It took a few minutes of arguing between Zoro, Nami and myself to figure out which was the right way to where Kaya was. When we did get there we were greated by Kaya, a beautiful ship and a gentleman in a suit. His head caught my attention. Were those? Horns? Was he an Asura too? Wait. Asura's don't have horns.

"Woah!"

"It's a Caravel!" Nami clapped her hands in excitement.

"This ship was designed by me, so it may look a little odd." I noticed the gentleman had horns that resembled a sheeps, interesting. "This ships name is the 'Going Merry' it's a caravel ship with a rudder in the middle. It has been very popular in the Latin world." The ships I had been on before had been a little bigger than this, but so had the crew.

"You're really going to give us this ship?"

"Yes, please, I would be more than happy to give it to you." Kaya laughed as Luffy's eyes sparkled. The ship was bigger up close, I jumped aboard, the wood was carved finely and the amount of detail gave it elegance. With this they had a better chance of making it to my destination. The only issue now was how to get them to take me there without them knowing where that was.

"Somebody help me!" I squinted and saw something rolling down the slope. Luffy and Zoro stood in front of the ship and put a foot up to stop the object that turned out to be Usopp.

"Thanks." He mumbled through his crushed face.  
"Sure." The two replied. When Usopp had recovered he stood up and began to load the oversized backpack into a dingy. I decided there was nothing left to observe outside and turned around and poked around the ship a bit more. There was a hatch by the mast. When I opened it I found it led - as expected - below deck, there was a sort of ladder staircase that went down. I simply poked my head in but as far as I could see there were three sofas and some hammocks and about a dozen barrels stacked in the corner. I sat up and closed the hatch then moved to the door to my left that was right under the door to the kitchen. There I found a filled store room and another door that lead to even more supplies and a bathroom. There was another yet hatch here, but I decided to look at it later when I heard some moderate yelling and decided to see what was happening on deck.

"I hope to see you again." Usopp had somehow hauled that monstrous bag onto the poor boat.

"Why?" Luffy, Zoro, and Nami had gotten aboard the ship too.

"What do you mean why? We're both pirates, we're going to have to meet on the ocean at some point."

"Just shut up and get on the ship already." Zoro urged.

"We're nakama now." There's that word again.

"I get to be the captain right!"

"Don't be stupid! I'm captain!" Luffy yelled back. He moved all his crap onto the Going Merry, which reminded me, I had to find a place to put my stuff. I didn't just want to leave my favorite - and only - bow lying around for anyone of these people to get their hands on. But as my motivation to do so faded I figured I would get to that when the time came.

-#-

A few minutes of fumbling around and we had finally set sail. It was great to be on a decent sized ship again. I couldn't stand being in such a small ship, especially with me being a devil fruit user.

I was distracted by the smell of the oceans breeze, after all these years it was still one of my favorite, next to the smell of rain. I remember I used to go swimming all the time when I was a kid, my brothers used to get me to go by saying something about training and how dodging the waves would make me stronger. I always figured they were making it up, but I knew they just wanted to get away from the pressure the king and have some fun. They were, after all, training to become a part of the royal guard so I didn't really mind. As long as they were happy, so was I.

"Rai!" I turned around, Luffy held out a mug with foamy stuff I assumed to be liquor. The others were holding one too, I took hesitantly. What was this for? Was it poisoned? "To a new ship and new nakama!"

_Oh, this is a thing?_

"Cheers!" They clunked the mugs together. It looked odd. Usually this sort of thing was done with crystal glasses and wine or something.

"Rai? You ok?" Nami looked concerned.

"Yah, cheers." I shook off the questions in their eyes and went along with the celebration.

_I guess it wouldn't hurt to play along._

-#-

I was beyond tired of hoisting Usopp up and down the mast as he painted the new Jolly Rodger onto it. Since there was really no other way to go about it, he had me use the shadows from the storeroom so he could stand on them. A good plan, but unfortunately shadows are much harder to control in the middle of the day. At any rate with Zoro's help and Nami keeping Luffy away from the paint we finished in less than three hours.

I laid down on deck and covered my eyes again. I felt dizzy, and my eyes felt heavy from the exhaustion of prior days. Just as I was slipping into a dream, not a nightmare, a dream, a loud bang startled. It sounded a lot like a cannon. I sprung up and looked around to see Luffy standing next to the machine and looking out to sea.

"ARE KIDDING ME?!" I screamed in frustration.

_All I wanted to sleep. Is that too much to ask?_

"What was that?"

"I'm practicing cannon shooting." Luffy said. "And apparently I'm bad at it."

"Let me try!" Usopp sprung up and ran eagerly over to the stupid thing.

_Apparently it is. Well if they were going to continue this nonsense, I might as well go find somewhere else to sleep._

I had made up my mind but my body was reluctant to follow it. After debating with myself for a bit I got up and decide to go up to the helm. It was small and was a combination of a meeting room and a kitchen but it was just fine for what I wanted it for. I sat down and rested my head onto my arms on the table. It wasn't the most comfortable position but it wasn't the worse. I closed my eyes, and waited for sleep to overcome me. Unfortunately, the exact thing I as trying to avoid hit me hard. I wasn't tired anymore.

"Dammit!" I wanted to tire myself out again so I would fall asleep easier and not have nightmares, even if the last two times they were good dreams. But getting up to go do anything would require effort and that seemed like too much trouble to go through right now. I heard another loud bang and Luffy cheers accompanied it. I didn't realize it at first, but I was smiling.

"-AND THEN HE HIT IT AND IT WAS COMPLETELY DESTROYED!" The Captain walked in followed by the rest of them.

"So this is where you wandered off to." Nami sat next to me. "Why did you come here?"

"I wanted to sleep."

"Oh, sorry." She giggled, I rolled my eyes.

"Of course you are." My voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Rai! Usopp's our new sharpshooter!" Luffy held him by his shoulders as if he were trying to present him to me for the very first time.

"Congratulations." I spoke in a monotone voice; I sat up and heard my back pop in the process.  
Ow.

"But I'm the captain." Usopp looked at him confused.

"No! I'm the captain! I already told you that!" Luffy frowned and sat down at the table. Usopp did the same.

"Fine, you can be captain. But if you do a crappy job at it, I get to be captain."

"Sure. By the way, I think there's one more crew member we should try and find before we go to the Grand Line."

"Yes, we have a beautiful kitchen. I will hire someone if I have the money." Nami starred at the stove.

"That's a good idea." I nodded.

"He's the most important member for a long journey." Zoro added.

"You think so? Great then it's settled, were going to look for a musician!"

"Ugh, Luffy!" I yelled.

"Are you crazy?" Usopp screamed.

"Just when I thought you had a good idea!" Nami shook her head.

"Pirates need some entertainment!" He defended with a frown on his face. The guy actually believed he was right. I tried to hold the laugh back, that didn't go so well. "What are you laughing at? I'm serious!" I nodded.

"I know, I know."

"Come out here you stupid pirates! I'll kill all of you!" There was a sound of supplies being thrown around the deck, I stopped my laughing and glared at the door.

"What was that?" Luffy ran out the door to find out. "Hey! Who are you?" Usopp had, at some point, fallen to the ground and started to shake. He sat up and crawled to the window with Nami at his heel.

"How many are there?" Zoro yawned.

"Only one." Nami looked back at him.

"Then let Luffy deal with it him." In the next minute or so there were various crashes and yelling, lots of yelling. I sent the swordsman a glare. He gave me a look then turned to where the noises were coming from; he stood up and walked towards the door. I followed with a glare. There was, after all, no point in trying to take a nap now.

"That sounds like-" Nami and Usopp backed away from the door to let him open it. I followed and saw Luffy calmly sitting on deck with a piece of the railing that was missing from where we stood next to him and a man with short black hair, sunglasses, a blue jacket and khakis was laying in front of him. "Hu? Aren't you Johnny?" The man sat up so he was on his knees and starring up at Zoro.

"Zo-Zoro-aniki?" I walked down the stairs and kept an on the man. "Why are you on a pirate ship?"

"What happened? Where's Yosaku?" Zoro asked, almost immediately the man began to mumble incoherently about some guy with that name.

"Woah." I stopped him, mostly because he was starting to cry, but some of those mumbles seemed to have formed a word. "Did you say sick?"

"Yes!" He turned to me and grabbed one of my hands, I frowned at this. "Can I bring him aboard?" I stood on my toes to look over the taller man and at Luffy, he nodded and I slipped my hand out of the man's grip.

"Where is he?" Johnny ran over to the side of the Merry and pointed down at the beaten boat. The man lying inside was a complete mess. Blood was everywhere, and he reeked of death. I climbed down the side of the Merry and onto the small boat to get a better look at the poor guy. He was bleeding heavily, or so it seemed because the bandages holding him together were soaked in a dark red color that smelled of dry blood. I checked his pulse, he was alive at least.

"Ane-san! Please help him!" I sighed.

"Alright, alright, but stop crying." I couldn't decide on how to get him onto the ship without breaking him in the process. But after much consideration (mostly yelling done on Nami's part) Yosaku was gently placed on the deck with Zoro's help. This made the sobbing intermission come to an end.

"Three days ago he was just fine, then suddenly he passed out and I didn't know why." Johnny explained. I knelt down and gently lifted the poorly wrapped bandages to see his wounds, they had barely been cleaned. "Then his teeth started falling out and his old wounds started bleeding, I didn't know what to do so I took him to that rocky island to rest but then this ship shot a cannon us!" Luffy and Usopp starred with wide eyes and open mouths at the men. They bowed their heads and apologized. "It's ok," Johnny sighed, "There's no point in apologizing. It won't help, will it? Partner?"

Johnny whimpered something about being great bounty hunters (More of them fan-fucking-tastic) then looked up at Zoro and cried about Yosaku dying. Nami knelt down next to me and continued the examination I had begun.

"Is it?" She rested a hand on my shoulder.

"It would appear so." I replied moving her had away. She sighed.

"You're both idiots."

"Oi!" The swordsman warned.

"Watch it! I'll kill you for insulting my friend's death." I glared at the bounty hunter until he quietly stood ready to listen.

"Luffy, Usopp." The two stood up straight ready for their orders. "Go to the galley and squeeze all the limes and bring the juice here. I stood up and got out of the way when the captain and sniper returned.

"He's got scurvy." I said before Johnny could open his mouth again.

"You were lucky, he'll be just fine in a few days."

"Really? Thank you Ane-san!" He was in tears for the- 1, 2, 3, 4, fuck it. The millionth time. "Thank you so much! If it weren't for you Ane-san-"

"Don't call me that. At any rate, scurvy used to be a very deadly disease that plagued sailors, but that was only because of their poor nutrition. And they couldn't bring all the fruits and vegetables they needed to avoid it because they would rot on the long journeys."

"Wow you're like a doctor or something!" Luffy praised.

"I always knew you were a smart woman!" Usopp joined.

"You should at least know what this was! You do realize this could happen to you too right?!" In the next second the corpse of a man stood up and was joined by Johnny and began to dance.

_What the hell?_

"It worked! He recovered! Welcome back!"

"It's great to be back!"

"There's no way anyone can recover that fast!" Nami shrieked.

"Oh that's right, we haven't introduced ourselves." They stopped and stopped to face us. "My name's Johnny."

"And I'm Yosaku." He was now holding a cigarette which I'll just assume was pulled out of his ass.

"We are pirate hunters!" They said together.

_Pirate hunters my ass._

"Zoro-aniki used to be one of us too." I looked back at Zoro and frowned, he nodded.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all."

"I never thought I would see you two again."

"But I'm even more surprised, to think the pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro has become a pirate himself."

A few more minutes of greetings and Yosaku had once again passed out. He needed to rest, and have someone take care of those wounds.

"Why don't I take him up to the galley? I'm no doctor but I can sew this gash up." I offered, pointed to his stomach. Johnny nodded and agreed with Zoro, so I took the injured man with me. When I undid the loose bandages I could very clearly see his body trying hard to repair itself with the drying blood plastered all over his body and it reeked of decay. But none the less I cleaned a much as I could off then grabbed a blanket from the corner of the room and rolled it up to be a sort of pillow. I quickly ran to mine and Nami's room, got one of the needles in the bag I brought and some string Nami had shown me was in a drawer. It wasn't the best material to be using but it was good for now. I tied a knot at the end if the string and pushed the disinfected needle through the dead flesh. He groaned and tried to push my hand away a few times in his sleep. So I just used a few shadows to secure his hands to the floor while I worked.

Once finished I ground up some garlic and applied it to the wound as a sort of antibiotic before wrapping it up. He was awake by then, so I released the shadows hold on him. He wanted to get up and run to Johnny and show him he was awake and well but I threatened to undo the work I had done. Not that I would, but it settled him down and he fell asleep again. I spread another blanket over him then leaned against the closest wall and closed my eyes.

-#-

_**"How dare it!"**_

_The stench of gunpowder and blood was everywhere; there was a young girl in a bloodied night gown running through the remains. The closer she got to the flickering lights the more rubble and crushed bodies were lying around._

_**"Why did that abomination live?"**_

_The corpses had begun to move, small movements at first that could easily be mistaken to be tricks of the dim light. Then their heads turned and hands stretched out to reach for the only living thing in the emptiness._

_**"How did it survive?"****"Kill it!"****"Destroy the monster!"****"Burn it!"**_

_There was a spot of light a few hundred feet away and the girl bolted to escape the empty eyes._

_**"How was it ever aloud to be born?"**_

_"Sousuke!" She covered her ears and screamed with tears in her eyes. "Kai! Help me!"_

_**"You lived."****"We have suffered."****"We should have lived."  
****"You should have perished!"  
**_

_The girl turned to the voices and fell to the bloody floor when she saw the decapitated heads of those who once were her family._

_**"Why did the monster live?"** The heads talked over one another. Their screams getting louder and louder until the entire emptiness seemed to rumble with their accusing voices._

_**"YOU KILLED US!"**_

-#-

I snapped my eyes open to see the shadow of a man in front of me. Without thinking I grabbed it and gasped for air. I brought one hand to my aching chest and clutched it. If I didn't calm down and steady my breathing I would start to cough.

"Ane-san," I blinked back the imminent tears and let the person go. "Are you ok?" I wanted to scream, but instead I nodded and dug my nails into my forearm. "You looked like you were having a bad dream." I looked up, Yosaku smiled back.

"No." My voice shook.

_Yes._

He frowned.

"I'm fine."

_No I'm not._

"Don't worry about it."

_Help me.  
_

"How are your wounds?" I sat up, hoping to take my mind off of that night.

"I feel fine." He trailed his hand over the bandages. I moved his hand away and felt my way around the bandaged area. His wound seemed to still be closed but I couldn't tell for sure.

"Lay down." He stared wide eyes at me and a slightly red face. I rolled my eyes. "I'm just going to check if you didn't reopen it, relax." He did as told. His wounds were healing as they should. I cleaned the garlic from the before and ground some more, then I rebadged it and sent him in his way. I sat on the floor for a little while longer and rubbed my aching wrists. The scars of rusty sea stone cuffs had been there for years but that didn't mean they didn't hurt every now and then. I closed my eyes again, my body seemed to be somewhat rested but my mind was a whole other issue.

**_Why did the monster survive?!_**

**_Monster._**

**_Devil._**

**_Half-blood._**

**_Creature of evil._**

**_Abomination._**

**_Demon Spawn.  
_**

I banged my head against the wall in a steady beat for a good while in a meaningless attempt to knock the memories out of my head, and just as I was starting to get a headache I heard a cannon fire. It startled me and without a second thought I shot up and ran out the door.

"What on earth?" I starred wide with wide eyes at the scene. A marine ship was right next to this one, the marine in charge starred at Luffy, who had stretched out with cannon lodged in his gut, ready to shoot back. Only problem being he lost his grip on the railing on the merry and was sent flying, with the cannon, into another ship that was in the shape of a fish.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Zoro yelled. I took a step and heard something like paper under my foot. When I looked down I saw wanted posters scattered all over the floor.

"Where did these come from?" I mumbled looking at the different faces. Then I spotted Nami, she was holding one and wouldn't take her eyes off it.

"They're the guys we mean to capture." I looked over at Johnny then Yosaku. "Or have captured." There were some famous names amongst these posters. Not extremely out there, except for the one I saw out of the corner of my eye.

_Oh no._

I could make out people talking but not what they were saying, I was too distracted. The poster was under two others but I had seen it so many times it was engraved in my memory. I grabbed it and immediately ripped it into smaller shreds then threw them over board.

"What was that, Rai?" Usopp asked.

_Not yet.  
_  
"It's of someone I don't like."

They can find out what I am after I get back to that island.

_**Avalcse.**_

_DAMMIT!_

-#-

"Now what?" Usopp asked as he sat on the railing.

"We might as well go bring Luffy back. What do you think, Rai?"

"Do whatever you want." I answered. I was not in the mood to do anything besides sail back to the island. No matter how much I wanted to drag it down into the depths of hell.

"Alright then." Nami walked off and returned in a few minutes. "We're going to take Johnny and Yosaku's boat."

"Then who's staying with the ship?" Zoro asked.

"I will."

"No, you're coming with us Rai." I frowned.

"Oi, Johnny." Immediately the bounty hunter stood up straight and turned his attention to the swordsman. "You and Yosaku take care of the ship while we're gone."

"Yessir!"

"Let's go then." Nami grabbed my arm, and pulled me to the edge of the ship them climbed down into the boat. Once the other two men had climbed in they rowed us to the "Baratie" as the place we were headed was seemed to be called.

"Wait, what is that?"

"The sea restaurant Johnny told us about." Usopp explained.

"Sea restaurant?"

"Oh yah, you weren't there." Nami sat me down and took all of five minutes to explain that we sailed to this floating fish in order to search for a cook. She explained in so much detail I found myself zoning out and missing the entire explanation "Got it?" I nodded to fake my understanding. "Good." She said as we reached the other ship. "Alright, let's look for Luffy." I stepped out of the boat and made my way to the door with Nami and Usopp right behind me.

"So, open the door."

"Why me?" I growled at Usopp. Not that I minded but I didn't like taking orders.

"You're closest!" He was shaking again.

"It's just a restaurant!" I replied.

"I'll go first, jeez." Zoro pushed past me and opened the doors; as soon as she did we beheld a sight we weren't expecting. The entire restaurant was silent and starring at the scene. A tall, lean blond haired man in a nice black suit held up the man I had seen on the marine ship. The smell hit me like a ton of bricks. Blood. Unfortunately my own blood never cooperated so at times I would be perfectly fine, then at others I had the urge to finger-paint with a human's blood. This was one of those times.

"Was there a fight?" I bit my bottom lip until I could taste the metallic flavor. It barely helped but it was better than having another blood bath. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing.

_In and out. In and out._

"Don't you dare go wasting food." The blond man spoke. "Angering a sea cook, will without a doubt get you killed. Don't forget that." No one spoke. No one moved. No one breathed for fear that the waiter would turn on them.

"Another customer?" All eyes turned to a very tall, muscular man, in a blue shirt, a pink bandana around his neck and an apron around his waist. " Dammit, not again Sanji!"

_Again?_

"What do you think you're doing to our customer? Can't you see he's a marine lieutenant?"

"You're a crappy cook, don't talk to me like that." The blond said releasing the marine.

"A crappy cook like you has no right calling me a crappy cook." The big chef retaliated. His face was red in anger. "A restaurant is nothing without its customers! And should treat them like kings! You know that!"

"So what if he's a customer. He just insulted the food and the cooks. I only taught him a lesson." I felt a hand on my wrist, I followed it to Usopp. He had tears in his eyes and was shaking his head.

"These people are crazy! Let's get out of here." He said in a hushed whisper. I shushed him.

"What the hell?" Oh he was still alive. "What kind of restaurant treats its customers like this?" He started to chuckle. "I'll shut this place down! I'll tell the government what happened and make sure this place goes down!"

"You want to shut us down? Well there's no way I'll let you live now." Pinkie looked with a fearful look in his eyes.

"Stop assistant chef!" Just as the blond lunged at the pink haired marine another four chefs held him back as he screamed insults at the bloody man. Several more chefs ran out of the kitchen and were trying desperately to calm their guy down. Out of nowhere two screaming people fell from the ceiling, causing the restaurant to bring up the question "who is it this time?" As the two people got up I didn't know whether to laugh or scream. On top of Luffy was an older man with a ridiculously long braided moustache and a long toque on his head.

"That surprised me." Luffy said sitting up.

"Zeff? What happened?"

_Zeff? Zeff. Why does that sound familiar?_

"Dammit. Look what you did, You made a hole in my celling! This is all your fault you brat!" Zeff yelled.

"My fault? You're the one who broke it!" Luffy yelled back.

"What are you doing, Boss? Stop messing around and help us!" The chefs trying to hold back the blond were losing their grip on him. "Sanji's gone crazy again!" Immediately the owner turned his attention from Luffy.

"Oi, Sanji. Don't tell me you went on another rampage in here, you idiot." The chefs let Sanji go once he seemed to have calmed down.

"Shut up you old fart."

"Just who do you think you're talking to? What are you trying to do? Sink my restaurant to the bottom of the sea? You insolent brat!" Zeff lifted his peg leg and kicked him in the face. Then he quickly turned to the marine. "You too, get out of my restaurant!" He also kicked him and sent him into the ground.

_What the hell kind of restaurant is this?_

* * *

_**A/N:** _Please pardon any mistakes. My phone likes to auto correct me and I don't always catch all the corrections.

I will keep writing as fast as I can, but I do still have to study for a math thing coming up.

See yah.


End file.
